All or Nothing: Systematicity, Transcendental Arguments, and Skepticism in German Idealism

Allor Nothing Systematicity, Transcendental Arguments, and Skepticism in German Idealism

Paul W. Franks

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2005

Copyright © 2005 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-ln··Publication Data Franks, Paul W., 1964All or nothing: systematicity, transcendental ar&uments, and skepticism in German idealism I Paul Franks. p, em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN0-674-01888-5 (alk. paper) 1. Idealism, German. 2. Merhodology-c-History-c-Iuth century. I. Title. B2745.F73 2005 141'.0943-dc22

2005046184

Acknowledgments

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While writing this book, I have received much help and support, in many different ways, for all of which I am deeply grateful. For the fact that this book has come into being in this form-and for so many other things-I thank Hindy Najman. When I set out to write the introduction to a book quite different from the one now in your hands, and found that the material had, as usual, exceeded my expectations, it was Hindy who suggested that I find a way to make what I had written into a self-standing book. In time, this came to seem not merely a practical suggestion but a valuable project. This is Hindy's Platonic way: she shows ideas how to become realities, and unveils realities as images of an unsuspected perfection. . . Stanley Cavell is a genial mentor, whose philosophical profundity and practical wisdom are exemplary for me. Much of my approach in this book-notably the attention to the presuppositions of philosophical problems and to the stake of skepticism-lowe to his teaching. Hilary Putnam's indefatigable rethinking of the presuppositions of his work and of the analytic tradition first gave me the idea that analytic philosophy might still have something important to learn from a renewed engagement with German idealism. He continues to be a valuable guide and, when the occasion allows, a wonderful chavrutah. Fred Neuhouser introduced me to Reinhold and Fichte, and set new standards for lucidity in the exposition of German idealism. Jim Conant has been a constant interlocutor and friend since graduate school. His philosophical paths continue to intersect with my own in surprising and, for me, ever fruitful ways, Most recently, I have learned much from his profound reflections on the varieties and vicissitudes of skepticism in Kant and in Kantian strains of the analytic tradition. I have been blessed with extraordinary colleagues. At Michigan, I was lucky enough to share an office with David Hills and to discover that there are not enough hours in the day to learn more than a tiny portion of what

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Acknowledgments

he has to teach. I had the good fortune to teach at Indiana UniversityBloomington while Fred Beiser, Graciela DePierris, and Michael Friedman were also there, and our overlapping interests in Kant and post-Kantianism temporarily turned a Midwestern college town into jena-on-the-jordan. To mention a few debts that will have to stand for others, Fred pioneered the Anglophone study of so-called minor figures between Kant and Hegel, and encouraged me to take an interest in Maimon; Graciela helped me to take Hume more seriously than I might otherwise have been inclined to do; and Michael taught me much about the philosophy of mathematics and physics, and about how to read the Kantian corpus in new and exciting ways. Another unforgettable aspect of Bloomington in the late 1990s was the unending conversation between David Finkelstein, Michael Morgan, and myself, in various combinations. I hope that the subtlety of David's work on self-knowledge and of Michael's work on modem jewish philosophy have left their marks on this book. At Notre Dame, I benefited enormously from regular conversations with Karl Ameriks, an unstintingly generous colleague and friend. It was from Karl that I first learned to take account of the rationalist heritage in Kant and German idealism. My focus on systematicity arises in part from his invitation to contribute a chapter on early German idealist systems to the Cambridge Companion to German Idealism. Karl commented painstakingly , on the manuscript that has become this book, and he also took the time to discuss and debate all of his comments with me. I hope that I have done minimal injustice in my representations of his views. Fred Rush has been a wonderful conversation partner, whose generous collegiality pre-dates our time together at Notre Dame. He too provided helpful comments. Colleagues from other universities have also read the manuscript and made invaluable suggestions. After an unforgettable conversation on the road between Dartmouth and Harvard, Robert Stern invited me to speak at a conference in Sheffield on transcendental arguments in 1997, an occasion that proved enormously useful. This book is to some extent an extended answer to those who pressed me there about the motivation for derivation from a single principle-David Bell and Michael Rosen, as well as Robert himself, who also commented helpfully on the manuscript. Sebastian Gardner commented generously on the manuscript and invited me to present some of the material at the 2002 Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association in Glasgow and at a 2004 conference on jacobi in London, on both of which occasions he was also an insightful

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vii

critic. Terry Pinkard, tireless and enthusiastic contributor to the study of German idealism, commented on the manuscript with great care and remarkable generosity. Benjamin Pollock read the manuscript painstakingly and raised thought-provoking questions. Among the many students I have been fortunate to teach and learn from, I single out a few who have contributed especially to this book. Andrew Janiak has long been a source of encouragement and of fruitful suggestions. His work on Newton and on Kant's Newtonianism has been particularly helpful, and it is a pleasure to be able to cite his edition of Newton's philosophical writings. Conversations with ChristianJohnson have been of great value, especially on the transcendental ideal, and on its Kantian and post -Kantian transformations in various accounts of conceptual content. Caleb Liang helped me to clarify what I wanted to say about reality, hence about realism and idealism, central themes of this book. Justin Shaddock wrote the first extended critical response to this book, and I have tried to incorporate his insightful suggestions. Kevin Robbins has been an indispensable conversation partner, often suggesting useful connections to contemporary philosophy. His assistance in the preparation 0 the text has been scrupulous and invaluable. Lindsay Waters has long been a believer in this project, and I thank him for his editorial support and wisdom. For financial support, I gratefully acknowledge the Michigan Society of Fellows; the Department of Philosophy and the College ofArts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington; and, at the University of Notre Dame, I thank the Department of Philosophy, the College of Arts and Letters, and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts. For coffee and a place to write, I thank Molly McGuire. Last, but far from least, I thank my parents, David and Elizabeth Franks, and my parents-in-law, Chaim and Sherrell Najman, for their support and encouragement. I thank my sister, Gillian Pearlman, for her sage advice. I thank my siblings-in-law-Samuel Pearlman, Yehuda and Naomi Najman, James and Dina Najman-Licht, and Daniel and Aviva Najman-for their friendship. And I thank Marianna and Ezra for the love and magic with which they infuse my every day, as I look forward to the. day when they can read this book. With kind permission of the publishers, material from the following previously published essays has been incorporated into this book. Chapter 2 includes material from "From Kant to Post-Kantian Idealism," in Pro-

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Acknowledgments

ceedings of the Aristotelian Society. 76 (suppl.), no. 1 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 2002). 229-246. Chapters 1 and 3 includes material from "What Should Kantians Learn from Maimon's Skepticism?" in Gideon Freudenthal (ed.), Salomon Maimon: Rational Dogmatist, Empirical Skeptic (Dordecht: Kluwer, 2003), 200-232. Chapter 3 includes material from "Does PostKantian Skepticism Exist?" in International Yearbook oj German Idealism. 1 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2003). 141-163. Chapter 4 includes material from "Transcendental Arguments. Reason. and Skepticism: Contemporary Debates and the Origins of Post-Kantian Idealism," in Robert Stern (ed.), Transcendental Arguments: Problems and Prospects (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 111-146.

I

L'I

Contents

Introduction 1

Kantian Dualism

13

2

Post-Kantian Monism

84

3

Post-Kantian Skepticism

146

4

Post-Kantian Transcendental Arguments

201

5

The Fact of Reason and the Standpoint

6

of German Idealism

260

Intuition, Negation, and the Possibility of Evil

337

Conclusion

385

Bibliography

395

Index

421

All or Nothing ----

r

Author's Note Abbreviations used in the footnotes are explained in the bibliography.

Introduction

Why are the German idealists-primarily, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm]oseph vonSchelling, and Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegelso obsessed with the construction of a philosophical system-of what they would call the philosophical system? Why do they think it impossible to contribute to the resolution of a philosophical problem without attempting to resolve them all within an interconnected whole? Even if it is important-or at least worthwhile-to connect one's philosophical views into a systematic unity, why should systematicity require the strong degree of connection in virtue of a single principle insisted upon by the German idealists? Why, for that matter, should it be the pursuit of systematicity that gives German idealist philosophy its distinctive shapes-as if systematization were the first priority in philosophy rather than, say, the last? In short: Why do they seek, with so much urgency, to say everything about . everything, which is unlikely to succeed, instead of being content to say something about something, which might avoid total failure? Must it be all or nothing? For many philosophers from the Anglo-American tradition, these unanswered-indeed, mostly unasked-questions prevent the incorporation of German idealists into the canon of great philosophers who illuminated problems with which we are still concerned. Their systematic project seems not only immodest but, to speak frankly,joreign. To be sure, the German idealists are responsive to the perennial problems of philosophy, such as the possibility of knowledge, the freedom of the will, and the nature of morality and justice. But, we are told, their responses to these problems are so closely intertwined with their attempts to construct the system that 1

Introduction

2

we cannot even understand these responses-let alone assess them-before we have learned to grasp the system, or some version of the as a whole. Confronted with such a demand-which seems not merely excessive but impossible to justify in advance, as well as incompatible with rigorous standards of clarity-most Anglo-American philosophers are content to leave the German idealists out of their conversations with the dead. At the beginning of the analytic tradition that is still characteristic of Anglo-American philosophy, the exclusion was deliberate. Empowered by unprecedented developments in logic and confronted by unimagined revolutions in physics, the founders of Anglo-American analytic philosophy rejected the post-Kantian idealist tradition of their teachers as both outdated and confused. In its methods and concerns, analytic philosophy could seem as detached from its prehistory as astronomy from astrology, or chemistry from alchemy. Insofar as it had any historical affinities, analytic philosophy seemed largely pre-Kantian, as if the options were, once again, to be either a Leibnizian metaphysician or a Humean naturalist, but this time with a far more powerful logic. The Kantian revolution and its various continuations, including German idealism, now seemed a massive and unnecessary detour into a dead-end. The German idealists, no longer even the targets of criticism, were mostly ignored, ascribed to the foreign, so-called Continental side of contemporary philosophy. I In contrast to Anglo-American analytic philosophers, those who are called Continental philosophers typically see themselves neither as members of some relatively unified tradition nor as contrasts with their counterparts across the English Channel and the Atlantic. Still, British and American educations in philosophy are likely to be closer to each other than to German and French educations, and vice versa. One difference is that a German or French philosopher is typically expected to know something about German idealism, whereas a British or American philosopher is not. Whether as cause or effect, Continental philosophy is also far more likely than Anglo-American philosophy to be in conversation with German idealism. Indeed, some of the Continental philosophers who are best known in Britain and America-such as Jacques Derrida on the French side and Hans-Georg Gadamer on the German-seem to take it as obvious that the construction of what German idealists call the system, if success1. For an insightful discussion of the very idea of Continental philosophy, see Glendinning (1999).

Introduction

3

fully executed, would be the culmination of philosophy as traditionally conceived. But, unlike the German idealists, Continental philosophers may think either that the system cannot be completed or that it can be completed only through an exclusion whose cost is to be measured, not only in intellectual but also in ethical and political terms. The failure of the German idealist system-or the disappointment of its success-becomes the new topic of philosophy, or else the topic that constitutes some postphilosophical discipline. In these Continental contexts systematicity is not an unasked question, but rather an unquestioned answer to the question of the nature of reason's fundamental demand-as if the fact that reason demands totality were obvious without justification and as if the import of such a demand were clear without explanation. Thus the German idealist conception of systematicity and its value stands between the Anglo-American and Continental traditions, which still, for the most part, pass each other by in mutual incomprehension. So great is this incomprehension that the very idea of two traditions, as well as the nomenclature, reflects only one point of view. In recent decades, however, the Anglo-American/Continental divide has come to seem less absolute than before. One symptom of this change has been a striking revival of Anglo-American interest in German idealism. In the wake of the reemergence of Kant, since the 1960s, as both the subject of serious commentary and the inspiration for contemporary positions in almost every area of philosophy, there has been a more tentative reemergence of Hegel, followed by an even more tentative reemergence of Fichte. (Schelling's day has not yet come. He is still often invoked as the principal illustration of what German idealism must not be if it is to deserve contemporary interest.F An impressive Anglophone literature has arisen in which German idealist texts are subjected to critical interpretation of a sort that typifies exchanges between analytic philosophers and their forebears.' In Germany, too, it is no longer unheard of to regard, say, Fichte's conception of self-consciousness or Hegel's conception of logic as contributions to contemporary analytic debates in philosophy of mind and Ian2. He is invoked thus in Pippin (1991), For an exception-see Bowie (2002), 3. See, for example Ameriks (2001), (2003a); Beiser (1987). (2002); Forster (1989), (1998); Martin (1997); Neuhauser (I 990) , (2000); Pinkard (1988), (1994), (2000), (2002); Pippin (1982), (1991), (1995), (1997); Redding (1996); Stem (1990), (1994), (1996), (2000). (2001); Taylor (1972), (1975); Westphal (1989a), (2003); Wood (1990), (1991).

4

Introduction

guage." At the same time, prominent Anglo-American philosophers-such as Robert Brandom, Tyler Burge, Stanley Cavell,John McDowelland Hilary Putnam-who have worked their way to positions in manners that seem internal to their own tradition, have come to see themselves as retrieving insights from German idealism, insights that have been forgotten, along with the German idealists themselves, by the analytic mainstream." In these discussions, too, the question of systematicity remains unasked." Analytic commentators tend to organize their studies around the central figures of German idealism rather than around the problems and methods characteristic of the tradition, moreover, they often tacitly assume-and occasionally make it explicit-that German idealist insights can be taken seriously only to the extent that they are liberated from an obscure idiom and that the project of constructing the system is something outdated, confused, and to be left behind? One major reason for this neglect is that German idealism tends to be viewed, understandably enough, through its relationship to Kant, on whom there is already a significant Anglo-American literature with acknowledged contemporary implications. But Kant seems to accord systematicity neither 4. See, for example Frank (1991a), (l991b), (l995), (1997), (2003); Henrich 097l), (1982), (1991), (1992a), (1992b), (1997a), (1997b), (2003), (2004); Hogrcbe (1989); Horstmann (1984), (1991), (2000); Klotz (2002); Stekeler-Weithofer (l992); Sturma (l985), (1993), (1995), (2000). See also Ameriks, Franks, Schonecker, and Stolzcnberg (2005). 5. See, for example, Brandom (1994), (2000), (2002); Burge (l979), (1982), (1986a), (1986b), (1998); McDowell (1994). See also Ameriks, Franks, Schonecker, and Stolzenberg (2005). 6. For a notable exception, see Hosle (1987). For an exception that proves the rule, see Horstmann (1999), 276: "Hegel's philosophy represents in a paradigmatic sense a type of philosophy which is strongly committed to holistic tendencies. These tendencies are responsible for his being in favour of what might be called 'System-Philosophic.' Now, 'System-Philosophie' in Hegel's sense has been out of fashion from his days on, and I take it that nowadays nobody really wants to give the 'System-' version of a holistic approach in philosophy a second chance. If, however, there are good reasons to suppose that for Hegel the idea of a system was constitutive of a philosophical theory, then one wonders how it is possible to think of Hegel as a philosopher whose legacy is of some value for us." 7. For a characteristically straightforward expression of a view that others share but fail to articulate so forthrightly, see Wood (1990), 4-5: "Viewed from a late twentieth-century perspective, it is evident that Hegel totally failed in his attempt to canonize speculative logic as the only proper form of philosophical thinking.... Because Hegel regards speculative logic as the foundation of his system, we might conclude from its failure that nothing in his philosophy could any longer he deserving of our interest. But that would be quite wrong. The fact is rather that Hegel's great positive achievements as a philosopher do not lie where he thought they did, in his system of speculative logic, but in quite a different realm, in his reflections on the social and spiritual predicament of modern Western European culture."

Introduction

5

the meaning nor the urgency ascribed to it by German idealists. If German idealism is seen exclusively as responsive to problems internal to Kant's critical project, then either German idealist assumptions about systernaticity must be read into Kant or German idealism must be reconstructed without one of its signature concerns. For a variety of reasons, then, the meaning and significance of the German idealist interest in systematicity remains unthematized. Consequently, so does the cost of either discarding it, as Anglo-American readers are apt to do, or of retaining it, in the way favored by many Continental readers. To my mind, this failure to investigate and evaluate the problems to which German idealism responds-the problems to which the German idealist system, if constructed, would offer a solution-runs the risk of missing an opportunity to learn from engagement with German idealism. For the value of the history of philosophy-understood as a historical mode of philosophy, not as a part of history that is concerned with philosophical and works-lies not only in the fact that we can learn from our predecessors how to address in different ways the questions that concern us, but also in the fact that we can learn from them how to ask different questions, or how to ask our questions differently. If we assume that historical figures are asking or answering our questions as we do, then we run the risk of both distorting what they say and missing an opportunity to learn from them, whether positively or negatively. Anachronism is problematic in the same way as projecting one's own assumptions onto the person with whom one is speaking: it is rude, it is bad for conversation, and it makes it hard to learn anything new. In the history of philosophy, however, anachronism is also problematic for another reason. Here, our conversation partners are our predecessors. Their ways of asking and answering questions continue to exercise an effect-indirectly and, almost always, unconsciously-on the ways we ask and answer questions. If we project our self-understanding onto them, then we lose the opportunity for self-criticism and development. It is crucial, then, to examine how problems arise for a philosopher or philosophical tradition. Moreover, it is only in light of the. constitution of the problems addressed that we can expect to form an accurate conception of the methods that a philosopher or tradition may reasonably hope to employ. Whereas recent Anglo-American interpreters of German idealism have largely ignored the constitution of the tradition's problems, they have

6

lntroduction

addressed the tradition's methods, which have sometimes been characterized as transcendental arguments, using a term that emerged within the Anglo-American response to Kant. It is surely worthwhile to compare German idealist methods to those of Kant and to consider the pertinence of Kant's Copernican or transcendental turn. But to suggest that Kant focuses on transcendental arguments in the contemporary sense is already anachronistic. It compounds the difficulties still further to suggest that the German idealists follow Kant in this respect, without an adequate reconstruction either of the German idealist problematic, or of the Kantian problematic, or of the complex relationship between them. Consequently, the first goal of this book is to investigate the constitution of the problems to which the German idealist systematization project is a response, and to assess the relationship between these problems and the questions motivating Kant. The second goal is to examine the characters, aspirations, and vulnerabilities of the methods employed hy the German idealists. My hope is that this twofold account prepares the ground for work that must occur elsewhere: more detailed comparisons of German idealism with both Kantianism and contemporary projects in analytic and continental philosophy, and critical assessments of specific attempts to implement the German idealist project. The approach I adopt here may be described as historically constrained reconstruction. Insofar as I seek to avoid anachronism, I operate under historical constraints. But my project is also reconstructive in at least three senses. First, and following more or less standard practice among AngloAmerican interpreters, I try to develop, on the authors' behalf, the most philosophically powerful arguments and considerations compatible with their texts. Second, I do not limit myself to what the authors explicitly say; rather, I try to present their projects with maximum charity hy developing arguments and considerations that were available to them. Although this mode of reconstruction is perhaps also standard, it plays an unusually prominent role in this book. For the little that the German idealists say about why they engage in their systematic project in the first place is not even close to sufficient to motivate the project for a reader educated in the Anglo-American tradition. Consequently, I draw heavily on arguments and considerations from texts that were known to the German idealists, texts that helped form them and the context in which they worked, texts by figuressuch as Friedrich Heinrichjacobi, Salomon Maimon, and Karl Leonhard Reinhold. One of the great recent improvements in the study of

Introduction

7

German idealism has been a twofold widening of focus, so that the development from Kant to Hegel is no longer seen as teleological and inevitable, and the so-called minor figures are no longer ignored. It is only when we attend to the problems motivating German idealism that we see just how crucial the contributions of these figures really are. This book is also reconstructive in a third sense that concerns the interpretation of Kant developed in Chapter 1. The German idealists' relationship to Kant is at once both the obvious way to approach them and the stumbling block that us from entering into their thought. For the idealists recognize Kant as their most immediate philosophical influence and initially describe their own project as the completion of Kant's unfinished revolution. Yet Kant himself repudiates the idealist project. It is a gesture that some contemporary Kantians continue to repeat. . On the one hand, there is no question that the German idealists misunderstand Kant in ways that no sophisticated Kant reader can miss. Sometimes they attribute to Kant a view of the cognitive faculties that cannot be his, such as the view that the faculty of understanding cannot be exercised unless the faculty of sensibility is also exercised, or the opposite view that there is no necessary connection whatsoever, but rather an unbridgeable dualism, between the two faculties. Similarly, they sometimes ascribe to Kant a view that makes little sense of his commitment to the existence of things in themselves as the grounds of the matter of our sensible intuition, such as the view that things in themselves must be independent not only of the distinctive forms of human cognition, but of reason as such, which makes them unthinkable. On the other hand, Kant sees German idealists solely through their deformations of some of his central concepts and, by insisting that their use of these concepts be understood according to his own standards, he foists upon them projects that cannot be theirs, such as the attempt to generate empirical objects from the empty forms of general logic alone. Much of the literature sympathetic to German idealism assumes some German idealist interpretation of Kant and thereby fails to engage AngloAmerican philosophers with a sophisticated and charitable understanding of Kant. At the same time, much of the literature critical of German idealism takes pains to detail the ways in which the idealists are wrong about Kant, and thereby fails to engage with the German idealist project in its own right. I will say more about the reasons for this hermeneutical tangle later in this introduction. In the body of the book, however, I develop an in-

8

Introduction

terpretation of Kant-or, at least, of some central strands in Kant's critical philosophy-that represents neither Kant as T think we should read him nor Kant as the German idealists actually read him, but rather Kant as the German idealists should read him. It is an interpretation of Kant that aspires to maximize, as far as possible, both compatibility with Kantian texts and conduciveness for the motivation of the German idealist project. Thus it is more compatible with Kantian texts than the actual Kant-interpretations of the German idealists, but it is also more compatible with the German idealist project than some other Kant-interpretations that might be equallyor, arguably, more-compatible with Karman texts. . Two contentions central to this book merit some advance warning. The first concerns the problems to which I take German idealism to respond, and the second concerns my interpretation of their response. The problems that motivate philosophers seem to me to have a stratified structure. A problem that appears to be resolved or irrelevant can nevertheless continue to underlie the problems that motivate philosophers in a particular epoch, as strata of earth and debris continue to underlie the surface we currently inhabit. New considerations, or the rediscovery of old considerations, can then return the supposedly obsolete problem to the surface, perhaps altering its structure or giving it new import. If two philosophers overlap partially in the problems that they find compelling, sharing lower strata of problems, while differing with respect to higher strata, then, unless this partial overlap is made explicit, they will be peculiarly liable to talk past one another. For they may use identical Ionnulations-the identity being rooted in the stratum or strata problems that they share-without realizing that they understand these formulations differently or accord them different imports-the difference being rooted in the stratum or strata of problems that they do not share. So it is, I contend, with Kant and the German idealists. They share some strata of problems and differ with respect to others, which is why they talk past one another. To see this, I argue, one must first see that the problems to which Kant responds are already stratified. At the lowest level lies the ancient worry that there can be no genuine justification because any putative justification is vulnerable to the Agrippan trilemma: if challenged, it turns out to lead either to an arbitrary assumption, or to a vicious circle, or to an infinite regress. This ancient worry takes on new import for Kant because, on the one hand, he takes modern rationalism-developed by Leibniz and mod-

Introduction

9

Hied by Kant himself before his critical tum-to have shown with unprecedented clarity what would be required to escape from the trilemma and to achieve genuine justification. On the other hand, Kant takes Newtonian-not Leibnizian-physics both to have realized the modem aspiration to natural science and to be unable in principle to meet the aforementioned requirements for an escape from the trilemma, Kant's response to this renewed problem gives rise to Kantian dualism, as I interpret it in Chapter I : commitment to two orders of grounding, such that the noumenal escapes the Agrippan trilemma while the phenomenal does not, and such that the phenomenal is grounded in the Agrippan trilemma-i-not in the sense that the phenomenal is reducible to or even supervenient upon the noumenal, but rather in the sense that the fundamental categories that structure the phenomenal can and must be derived from the fundamental categories that structure the noumenal. An adequate understanding of the relationship between these two orders can be attained, according to Kant, only from the transcendental standpoint that characterizes his own philosophy.not from the empirical standpoint appropriate to everyday life and to natural science-the standpoint that, in his view, pre-Kantian philosophy has failed to abandon. 50 far, both the problems motivating Kant and the German idealists and their responses to those problems overlap. Indeed, as I see it, the German idealists never cease to inherit some version of Kantian dualism, represented by the distinction between the transcendental standpoint required for philosophy and the empirical standpoint presupposed in everyday life and natural science. However, crucial differences emerge in the way that German idealists understand both the structure of a justificatory system adequate to escape the Agrippan trilemma and the nature of the problem raised for empirical knowledge by Agrippan skepticism, 1 deal with the former in 2 and with the latter in Chapter 3. These differences have much to do with the momentous event initiated by Jacobi in 1785, which has come to be known as the Spinozism controversy. The German idealists accept Jacobi's contention that it is Benedict Spinoza-not Leibniz or the pre-critical Kant-who has shown what would be required for a genuine justification that escapes the Agrippan trilemma. Thus they are all committed, in various ways, to the view that genuine justification can be achieved only within a system that meets two conditions: the holistic condition that every particular (object, fact, or judgment) be determined through its role within the whole and not through

10

Introduction

any intrinsic properties; and the monistic condition that the whole be grounded in an absolute principle that is immanent and not transcendent. Now, Jacobi himself thinks that, whereas the demand for such a system is the rigorously derived culmination of philosophical rationalism, the attempt to fulfill this demand must be disastrous not only in theory but also in practice. For such a system would not only be incapable of accounting for the individuality of persons and everyday objects, but it would also tend to annihilate the individuality of any person who actually came to believe it and live according to it. Rejecting Jacobi's fideist alternative, the German idealists face the problem of developing a version of Spinozism that escapes not only the Agrippan trilernrna, but also what Jacobi calls nihilism. Hence, for the German idealists, it is indeed a matter of all or nothing. In these two lessons learned from Jacobi, the German idealists differ from Kant. For them, the problem of escaping the Agrippan trilemma becomes the problem of achieving a Spinozist system that meets the holistic and monistic requirements, to which Kant does not subscribe. At the same time, the stakes have risen dramatically. For Kant, although skepticism about empirical knowledge is of crucial importance for setting philosophy on the secure path of a science, it is nevertheless a merely academic problem. Moral life is unthreatened by it, and, indeed, it does not concern everyday knowers or natural scientists, who have clearly achieved genuine justification. Rather, skepticism should be of concern only to philosophers, who need to explain the success of everyday knowers and natural scientists, and to replicate it in their own case, to the extent that this is possible. For the German idealists, however, skepticism-now transformed into nihilism, thanks to Jacobi-threatens every putatively justificatory practice, extending beyond the philosopher's chamber to the natural scientist's laboratory and, beyond the academy, to everyday life. What complicates the relationship between the German idealists and . Kant is the fact that all of them read Kant's critical works in the wake of the Spinozism controversy, although the publication of the Critique of Pure Reason predates that controversy by four years and although Kant is not concerned with the all-or-nothing problematic due to Jacobi. Indeed, widespread interest in Kant's critical project arises precisely because Reinholdsoon to become the first German idealist-presents it to the public as resolving the Spinozism controversy, in a way that is quite different both from the traditional rationalism of Moses Mendelssohn and from the radical

"

Introduction

11

fideism of jacobi. Partly because of this, and partly because of jacobi's own references to Kant's Critique, the German idealists assume wrongly that, like them, Kant is concerned to achieve a system that avoids nihilism. So, in light of this difference with respect to a stratum of problems, it is hardly surprising that the German idealists soon feel compelled to move beyond Kant's explicit formulations in order to pursue a project that they assume is implicit in his work, or that this leads to a breach with more orthodox Kantians and ultimately with Kant himself. Of course, the German idealists are also responsive to problems internal to Kant's critical project-problems by which one could be moved independently of jacobian concerns. But even these problems, or one's sense of an attractive response to them, can be transformed in the context of the Spinozism controversy. . With respect to the response to these problems which i ascribe to the German idealists, I want to draw attention to my thesis that this response may be characterized in terms of a single project-or rather, a single family of projects, within which there are significant differences and disagreements. Since they share the need to respond to post-Jacobian problems, and since they share the sense that Kant's critical philosophy provides the resources for such a response, the German idealists. tend to draw upon a shared set of ideas and methods, transformed once again by the exigencies of the Spinozism controversy. These resources, in my view, go far beyond those that tend to be appealing to contemporary analytic interpretations and appropriations of Kant. Thus, in addition to themes drawn from the Transcendental Deduction and the Refutation of Idealism, the German idealists also draw upon, for example, the Metaphysical Deduction and the Transcendental Ideal from the Critique of Pure Reason, as well as the appeal to the Factum of reason in the Critique of Practical Reason and the idea of intellectual intuition in the CJitique ofJudgment. (See Chapters 1,4, and 5.) 1 contend that, in light of their shared problems and shared resources, it is possible to characterize in schematic terms a systematic project to which all the German idealists subscribe and to characterize the differences between them as disagreements about how to realize this schema. (On these differences, see Chapter 6, where I argue that, although I have drawn largely upon resources developed before 1800, none of the undeniably important developments after 1800 renders my reconstruction of the German idealist project irrelevant to that period.) 1 am sure that this contention, like much else in this book, is open to

]2

Introduction

objection-indeed open to objection on many fronts. I hope that it will also serve as a provocation. In other words,' I am sure that some readers will think that my account applies, more or less, to some idealists but not to Fichte, or to some but not to Schelling, or, most likely, to some but not to Hegel. (Other readers may well think that I am right about none of the abovel) My hope is that those who believe that Fichte, Schelling, or Hegel is distinctive in a way that my account does not acknowledge will be moved to say in what this distinctiveness consists and that this will in tum give rise to a debate that goes beyond the familiar stereotypes of Fichte the subjectivist, Schelling the proponent of an absolute in whose night all cows are black, Hegel the all-consuming dialectician, and so on. To counter the traditional and still prevalent orientation towards the major figures in the development of German idealism-especially Hegeland towards the post-18DD versions of the system, 1 have deliberately focused in this book on the contributions of minor figures before 1800. This approach is not intended to minimize the importance of the major figures or of developments after 1800, but rather to place these figures arid developments in what I hope will prove to be an illuminating context.

"(

1

Kantian Dualism Not to mention the task that touches the interest of philosophy most nearly at the present moment: to put God back again at the peak of philosophy, absolutely prior to all else as the one and only ground of everything, the unique principium essendi and cognoscendi, after all this time in which he has been put beside other finite things, or put off right to the end as a postulate that springs from absolute finitude. -Hegel (1970), WGM, 2:195 How it could happen that a whole epoch of philosophers, from Reinhold to Hegel, was of the opinion that philosophy must be deduced from a proposition-this has still remained unclear to me, and 1 have as yet found no answer for it in the literature, --Rattgers (1975), 93, n. 28, cited by Ameriks (2000a); 1 be sure, it seems odd that we can determine our concepts of things in themselves appropriately only insofar as we first lead ,back [redudren] all reality to the concept of God and that we should apply it to other things as things in themselves only insofar as it finds its place within [that concept]. "[hat alone is properly the means of separation of everything sensible and of appearance from that which can be considered through the understanding as appropriate to things in themselves.

"[0

-Kant (1900- ),

~JPM,

8:154

1.1 What is German idealism? It is not, I suggest, a philosophical position, but rather a family of philosophical programs. What, then, do members of this family have in common? What are the topics about which, like members of every family, they tend to argue? In the first place, German idealist programs share a common origin in Kant's critical philosophy. More specifically, German idealists are postKantians: they seek to complete the revolution begun by Kant, which, they believe, requires them to go beyond Kant himself. For the time being, the 13

14

Kantian Dualism

following will suffice as an expression of Kant's revolutionary insight: the truth of the claims to knowledge classified by Kant as synthetic a prioriknowledge of mathematics, and of metaphysics, including the foundations of physics-does not consist, as has been assumed hitherto, in conformity to things as they are in themselves, independently of the human mind. It consists rather in conformity to the a priori conditions of human knowledge, which constitute the objects of human knowledge, objects that are thus mind-dependent.' Just as Copernicus proposes that the motions we observe every day are not absolute motions independent of us, as has always been assumed, but are rather motions relative to our own standpoint, so Kant proposes that the objects with which we interact every day are objects relative to our own standpoint. Any Kantian or post-Kantian should agree to this form of words. But, like Copernicus's astronomical revolution, it is open to many interpretations.? Kant's understanding of his revolution will be the theme of this chapter and the next. The German idealist understanding of the Kantian revolution will be the implicit theme of this entire book, to which I will return explicitly in the final chapter. To go beyond Kant is, at some point, to part company with Kant. Where, then, is the parting of the ways? It is often said that Kant is a dualist whereas German idealists are morusts." But, as it stands, this is nothing but a slogan. First, there are many different senses of dualism and monism, not all of which conflict. Second, without an understanding of the complex of problems to which it responds, a philosophical doctrine is a dead letter. To determine where Kantians and German idealists accompany one another and where they part ways, it is necessary to determine the complex of problems to which each responds and to examine the relationship between the two complexes. The topic of 1. Kant (1900- ), KrV, Bxvi-xxii. 2. Newton is unusual for believing that the upshot of Copernicus's astronomical revolution was that absolute motion needed to be determined. Most Copernican philosophers, like Descartes and Leibniz, took the upshot to be rather that there is no absolute motion. 3. Here, for example, is a characterization of "the standard view of German idealism" from Horstmann (2000), 117: although convinced of the value of Kant's philosophy, "they were also . convinced that Kant had not really succeeded in developing his systematic approach because he was hopelessly entangled in a dualistic mode of thinking which was fundamentally at odds with his proclaimed goal of unity .. in order to avoid Kant's dualism, [they believcd.] ... one had to supplement his philosophy with a monistic basis and accept that monism is the only viable alternative to dualism," .

Kantian Dualism

15

this chapter will be the overlap between the problems confronting Kant and the prohlems confronting German idealists. As we shall see, this is a delicate matter: there is an overlap, but even a slight shift in one direction or another is sufficient for the overlap to all but vanish. Some complications must be acknowledged in advance. First, it will not be helpful to begin with what the German idealists themselves say about Kant or with what Kant himself says about them. For they interpret Kant's revolution in the wake of another major philosophical event, the Spinozism controversy initiated by jacobi." Consequently, much of what the German idealists say directly about Kant would be rightly rejected by contemporary Kant interpreters. Meanwhile, Kant's understanding of what came to be known as German idealism is mainly second-hand, derived from the letters and reviews of some of his followers who are hostile to the new developments. It is on the basis of this unsympathetic interpretation that Kant publicly repudiates German idealism in 1799, after ten years in which it has appeared to have his support." Thus my topic in this chapter will not be the ways in which either Kant or the German idealists understand their commonality. For their understandings are too partisan to serve as a starting point for charitable assessment. Only in the second chapter will I begin to thematize the differences between the Kantian and German idealist problematics, attending to the trans formative effect of the Spinozism controversy on German idealist readings of Kant. At this point, a second complication arises. For Kant is a moving target. Far from being static, his thoughts continue to develop and transform, even after the revolution marked by the publication of the Critique oj Pure Reason in 1781. To be sure, this is also true of each German idealist. But Kant's development is especially pertinent to the assessment of the relationship between Kantianism and German idealism. For a certain picture of his development can be suggested when Kantians accuse German idealistsas they often do-of regressing to a pre-critical hence of undoing the very revolution they intend to complete. Kant's own letter of repudiation may be read in this way. But while there is certainly something to the distinction between critical and pre-critical philosophy, what there is to that distinction should be no more clear than what the Kantian revo4. For historical details, see Altmann (1973); Beiser (1987); Zammito (1992). 5. Kant (1900- ), B, 12: 370~371 (Declaration concemlng Hchte's Wissenschaftslehre, 7 August 1799).

16

Kantian Dualism

lution amounts to-and that is exactly the bone of contention. In particular, it should not be assumed that the emergence within German idealism of some element of Kant's pre-1781 philosophy is a symptom that the revolution is coming undone. In fact, as I will sbow in this chapter, elements of Kant's pre-1781 philosophy reemerge within the development of Kant's own post-1781 thinking, and it is an open question whether such elements should be discarded or preserved in some revolutionized form. Indeed, as I will show in the next chapter, Kant's assessment of the adequacy of the transcendental idealism he is developing requires him to continue asking himself what he would now think if he were still pursuing his pre-critical project. Only then can he be sure that his philosophy is preferable to the best possible version of the transcendental realism that is its rival. Yet a third complication should be acknowledged. Contemporary interpretations of Kant and German idealism tend, understandably enough, to be motivated by the problems that press contemporary philosophy. Many discussions assume without argument that a desirable philosophical position should be "nonmetaphysical"-certainly in the sense of eschewing outological commitment to any supernatural entity, and perhaps in the additional sense of eschewing any ontological commitment whatsoever, restricting itself to the exploration of "our conceptual scheme." The warrant for this assumption is presumably that it would be uncharitable to ascribe a position that contemporary naturalist philosophers would reject out of hand to a philosopher with whom one sympathizes. Thus one finds that those who sympathize with Kant seek either to isolate a "nonmetaphysical" strand within his philosophy or else to interpret his philosophy in its entirety as "nonmetaphysical," whereas those who sympathize with ---_.

__ _..

6. This assumption is shared by three groups of contemporary philosophers. First, there are those like P. F. Strawson, Paul Guyer, and Beatrice Longuenesse, who think that we should discard . a metaphysical strand of Kant's philosophy while retaining a nonmetaphysical strand. See Strawson (1966), Guyer (1987), and Longuenesse (2000). Second, there are those like Henry Allison and, perhaps, Graham Bird who think that Kant's philosophy in its totality may be interpreted nonmetaphysically. See Allison (1983), (1990), and (2001); and Bird (1962). Third, there are those likeJohn McDowell, Robert Pippin, and Allen Wood, who think that an adequate reconstruction of the nonmetaphysical in Kant's philosophy is best accomplished through the reconstruction of'-:'" or, at least, serious engagement with-some version of German idealism. See McDowell (1994); Pippin (1982), (1989), (1991), and (1997); Wood (1991) and (2000). Opposed to all three groups are those who, like Karl Ameriks and James Van Cleve, sympathize with Kant's philosophy under an avowedly metaphysical interpretation. See Ameriks (1982) and Van Cleve (1999).

Kantian Dualism

17

German idealism tend to interpret Kant's philosophy as containing a "metaphysical" residue that is best eliminated by the endorsement of German idealism, interpreted as "nonmetaphysical.:" However, I do not wish to assume that the problems pressing contemporary naturalists are/the problems confronting either Kant or the German idealists. In what follows, I will not avoid questions about whether Kant and the German idealists turn out, in some sense, to be metaphysicians; I will consider these questions in some detail in the conclusion to this book. But I will begin from the problems that I take to motivate them. Although these may not lie at the heart of contemporary concerns, I will do my best to relate them to-and also to distinguish them from--contemporary analogues.

1.2 German idealists seek to complete Kant's revolution through a program of systematization. They are committed to Derivation Monism: the view that, in an adequate philosophical system, the a priori conditions of experience must somehow be derived from a single, absolute first principle. Such a program is often said to be incompatible with Kant's own understanding of his revolution, specifically with the dualisms said to be fundamental to his critical philosophy. But I am going to argue that Derivation Monism and the core of Kantian dualism are responses to a shared set of problems, and that, under an important restriction, Derivation Monism is compatible with Kantian dualism and is even suggested, at a certain stage of his development after 1781, by Kant himself. To understand the problems to which both Kantian dualism and German idealist Derivation Monism are responses, it is helpful to begin with a set of issues that is at once both ancient and contemporary: the issues raised by Agrippan skepticism." Suppose you are asked to respond to a why-

7. See Conclusion below. 8. See Diogenes l.aertius (1925), book 9, 88. For discussion, see Westphal (1989a), 13-14, Fogelin (1994), Williams (1996), and Williams (2001). See also Stern (2000) on what he calls "justificatory skepticism." Agrippa is associated with five modes: discrepancy, infinite regress, relativity, hypothesis, and circularity. However, we may distinguish, as Fogelin (1994),116, does, between the two modes that "trigger a demand for justification by revealing that there are competing claims concerning the nature of the world we perceive"-name1y, discrepancy and relativity-and the three modes whose task "is to show that it is impossible to complete this reasongiving process in a satisfactory way." These three modes give rise to the Agrippan trilemma.

18

Kantian Dualism

question. For any answer you give, the Agrippan skeptic undertakes to show that it is either a brute assertion that itself lacks justification, or a justification that raises a further why-question, or a justification that presupposes wbat it is supposed to establish. 1£ this can be done, then any response you give to the why-question will either terminate arbitrarily, or lead to an infinite regress, or move in a circle." Collectively, these three alternatives constitute what is known as the Agrippan trilemma.'? Here are three possible responses to the trilemma: 1. You have failed to answer the question until you manage to answer the why-question in a way that falls into none of the three options. Unless that happens, there is no reason to assume that you have given any justification whatsoever, and indeed there is no reason to assume that any justification whatsoever is available. 2. In at least some cases, there must be an answer to the question that falls into none of the three options, even if you have not yet succeeded in giving it. For if there is no reason to assume that justifications are sometimes available, then there is no reason for anything. 3. Even if you answer the question in a way that falls into one of the three options, your answer may still be satisfying, The two previous responses assume that no adequate justification can be, without further reason, infinitely regressive or circular. But this assumption is mistaken. The fact that some line of response to a why-question is vulnerable to the Agrippan trilemma does not mean that it is an inadequate line of response, and it provides no ground for skepticism. The Agrippan trilemma is often discussed as if it were an exclusively

epistemological topic. Thus foundationalist epistemologies are cited as examples of the second response and coherentist epistemologies as examples of the third. But in fact the trilemma can arise whenever what is at stake. is the nature of reasons, which need not only be reasons why someone believes something, but may also be reasons why someone should do some9. As Fogelin (1994), 114, notes, many philosophers speak as though only avoidance of a viciously infinite regress is at stake, thus underdescribing and perhaps underestimating the problem. In what follows, I will take of the avoidance of a viciously infinite regress to indicate that the full Agrippan trilemma underlies the discussion. 10. For a dispute about whether the ancient skeptic intends to challenge only philosophical knowledge-claims or also ordinary knowledge-claims, see Barnes (1997) and Frede, "The Skeptic's Beliefs" in Burnyeat and Frede (eds.) (1997), 179-200. See also Fogelin (1994), 5-9.

Kantian Dualism

19

thing, or reasons why something is the something it is.!' When 1 want to be neutral between epistemic, practical and antic reasons, 1 will speak of grounds. Let us say, then, that the first and second responses agree that 'it genuine grounding must terminate in an absolute ground. However, while the first response sees the failure to produce an absolute ground as motivating one to doubt, the second response sees that failure as a challenge that must, in some cases, be capable of being met. Meanwhile, the third response rejects the view that genuine grounding must terminate in an absolute ground. On this view, genuine groundings may be ungrounded or infinitely regressive or circular, or some subset of the above. Both Derivation Monism and Kantian dualism are fundamentally responses to a problem thematized by Leibniz, who made it central to 11. Many will wish to resist this extension of the skeptical problematic on the basis of a fundamental distinction between the epistemic and the outic, or between the mental and the physical. See, for example, Davidson (2001), 215: "It is here that the irreducible difference between mental concepts and physical concepts begins to emerge: the former, at least insofar as they are intentional in nature, require the interpreter to consider how best to render the creature being interpreted intelligible, that is, as a creature endowed with reason. As a consequence, aninterpreter must separate meaning from opinion partly on nonnative grounds by deciding what, from his point of view, maximizes intelligibility. In this endeavor the interpreter has, of course, no other standards of rationality to fall back on but his own. When we try to interpret the world as physicists, we necessarily employ our own norrns, but we do not aim to discover rationality in the phenomena." It is widely acknowledged, however, that knowledge requires not only that one's beliefsbe true, but that they be truth-tracking; and it is surely a sufficient-if not a necessary-i-condtuon for truth-tracking that the subject's reasons for belief involve insight into the reasons why the object is as it is. If so, then there can-or musi-c-be a motivation for Agrippan skepticism about the reasons why the object is as it is, matching the motivation for skepticism about the reasons the subject believes as she does, A Kantian or post-Kantian has an additional reason for regarding the Agrippan trilemma as more than a merely epistemological problem. For one expression of Kant's Copernican revolution is the identity of the a priori conditions of knowledge with the a priori conditions of being an object of knowledge, In the following paragraphs from an early essay in Schelling (1856-1861), VIPP, Ill: 162, the problem and the third response are expressed first epistemologically, then onto logically: "Either our knowledge has no reality at all and must be an eternal round of propositions, each dissolving in its opposite, a chaos in which no element can crystallize-or there must be an ultimate point of reality on which everything depends, from which all firmness and all form of our knowledge springs, a point which sunders the elements, and which circumscribes for each of them the circle of its continuous effect in the universe of knowledge. ' There must be something in which and through which everything that'is reaches existence, everything that is being thought reaches reality, and thought itself reaches the form of unity and immovability. This something, . ,should be what completes all insights within the whole system of human knowledge, and it should reign-in the entire cosmos of our knowledge-as original ground of all reality." Thanks to Robert Stern for raising this issue,

20 ~

Kantian Dualism

....._-~._--~

_------

..._._-~..._--_._-~...

7

eighteenth-century German philosophy. The problem arises from the combination of two demands. First, there is the Monistic Demand. This is the demand that every genuine grounding participate in a single systematic unity of grounds, terminating in a single absolute ground. This is an expression of the second response to the Agrippan trilemma. Second, there is the Dualistic Demand that physical grounding and metaphysical grounding be kept rigorously separate. What motivates this demand is the thought that the evident promise of modem physical explanation depends on the assumption of necessary physical laws gov~ming all natural phenomena. This assumption entails the explanatory closure of physics: physical phenomena are not to be explained in terms of nonphysical factors, causes that are not bound by physical laws. The two demands can be seen to be in apparent conflict once the following observation, which may be justified in a variety of ways, is added: physical explanations do not and indeed cannot terminate in an. absolute ground. Physical laws and the fundamental properties of matter they articulate are not plausible candidates for absoluteness. This observation entails that physical grounding, considered on its own, is vulnerable to the Agrippan trilemma. In contrast, metaphysical grounding may be conceived as escaping-in the Leibnizian tradition, is conceived in order to escape-the Agrippan trilemma. Thus properties are grounded in substances, conceived as property-bearers that are not themselves borne by anything else, and substances are in tum grounded in God, who is their absolute ground. The Monistic Demand would seem, then, to amount to a demand that physical phenomena be grounded in metaphysical substances and ultimately in God. However, neither metaphysical substances nor God may be introduced as the grounds of physical phenomena. For this would contradict the closure of physical explanation, hence the Dualistic Demand. The problem, then, is to find a way to satisfy both demands simultaneously. How can explanations that cannot themselves terminate in .an absolute ground, nevertheless be genuine groundings, on the assumption that genuine groundings must terminate in an absolute ground? How can physics be kept rigorously separate from metaphysics, while being grounded in it?12 12. For an early example of Leibniz's concern with this problem, see his ConfeSSion of Nature against Atheists, Leibruz (1969), 110-111: "At the beginning I readily admitted that we must agree with those contemporary philosophers who have revived Democritus and Epicurus and whom

I

Kantian Dualism

21

Leibniz's response to this problem is what I will call Derivability Monism: the explanatory conditions to which modern physics appeals-namely, the primary properties of matter-must be in principle derivable from a set of metaphysical conditions-namely, the intrinsic properties of the substances whose coexistence constitutes the best of all possible worlds-that are grounded in an absolute first principle-namely, God, who is infinite in His knowledge, wisdom, and power. Thus physical phenomena are grounded in physical conditions, arid no metaphysical condition is introduced to explain those phenomena, in accordance with the Dualistic Demand. However, the Monistic Demand L

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Kantian Dualism

Monistic Demands. If so, then it would seem that Kant now accepts the Agrippan trilemma as the condition of human knowledge, without, however, becoming an Agrippan skeptic. There is much to recommend such a reading of the Critique oj Pure Reason, which ascribes to Kant the third response to the Agrippan trilemma: we cannot escape it, but that is no reason for doubt. Certainly, Kant regards empirical knowledge as grounded in the brute and underivable forms of space and time; as incapable of escaping from the circle ofdynamic community, in which every object depends for its determinations on every other object, which in turn depend on the first object, and so on; and also as inescapably driven to infinite regress in its causal explanations. And, surely, there is no reason to impute skepticism to a philosopher who insists that the epistemic success of the mathematical and natural sciences may be taken as a "fact" and needs no demonstration, and upon whose genesis he wishes to model his own attempt to set philosophy on the sure path of a science." If one reads the Critique thus, then one will find no overlap whatsoever between its problematic and that of the German idealists, whose Derivation Monism will be judged pre-critical. However, I want to argue that it remains possible to read the Critique as a response to the Leibnizian problematic, and even to find versions of Dependence Monism arid, within crucial limits, Derivation Monism that survive Kant's Copernican revolution. Of course, quite different interpretations of that revolution will be given by those who think the critical Kant gives the third response to the Agrippan trilemma and those who think that he gives the second response. Everyone will have to agree to some verbal formulas-say, that our knowledge is of appearances, not things in themselves, and that the standards of reality and trutb by which our knowledge is to be assessed come from the forms of our minds, not from the forms of mind-independent substances. But these words alone do not compel us to abandon the thesis that there . are things in themselves with an absolute ground, or even the thesis that physical grounding is somehow derivative from metaphysical grounding. I will argue, however, that these theses can only be ascribed to the critical Kant if their meanings undergo revolutionary transformation. It is in the light of these issues that 1 want to consider the more familiar questions-more familiar to Kant interpreters-of how to understand 44. Kant (1900- ), KrV, Bl2B.

Kantian Dualism

39

Kant's critical dualism between thing in itself and appearance and, most immediately, of how to understand Kant's critical use of the term thing in itself. A range of options have been canvassed, which might be arranged as follows, in order of increasing ontological commitment: 1. The Two Methods Interpretation. On this view, Kant speaks of things in themselves nonreferentially and thus without any ontological commitment whatsoever. The point of the distinction between things in themselves and appearances is not to pick out some realm of entities beyond the reach of our knowledge. Instead, the point is to pick out a method for thinking of the very same objects that are accessible to our knowledge, a method for thinking of them as independent of the necessary conditions of our knowledge. But there is nothing metaphysical corresponding to this method of thinking, not even a nonphenomenal aspect of the objects we know. Our knowledge is finite without being confined. There is nothing-no thingwe cannot know. 2. The Two Aspects lnterpretation. On this view, Kant speaks of things in themselves referentially, but he is referring to a nonphenomenal aspect of the very same objects that are accessible to our knowledge. Thus there is something we cannot know. But this something is not an entity distinct from the entities we can know. Here a further range of options opens up, varying with respect to how much we are entitled to affirm of the nonphenomenal aspect of things. Are we entitled to affirm only that such an aspect exists, or also that it has certain negative characteristics, or even that it has certain positive characteristics? 3. The Two Existents Interpretation. On this view, Kant speaks of things in themselves referentially, and he is committed to the existence of entities distinct from the sensible objects of our knowledge. These entities inhabit the intelligible world, which is distinct from the sensible world. Again a further range of options opens up, now varying with respect to how much we are entitled to affirm of things in themselves. Are we entitled to affirm only that such entities exist, or also that they have certain negative characteristics, or perhaps even that they have certain positive characteristics? The Two Methods Interpretation's total lack of ontological commitment accords well with the idea that Kant accepts the Agrippan trilemma without

40

Kantian Dualism

skepticism, abandoning the requirement for absolute grounding. For things in themselves cannot supply any such grounding if they do not exist. However, the idea of a method for thinking of things as independent of the conditions necessalY for us to know them sounds exceedingly odd. What could be the point of such a method if it does not pick out a way things are independently of the conditions necessary for us to know them? To this question, the third and second critiques enable the following responses. First, the idea that physical grounding as derivative from metaphysical grounding plays an indispensable role in science. This is not because it constitutes objects of possible knowledge. Rather, it is becauseas Kant argues in the Critique oj Judgment-it gives us hope that a shared absolute ground renders nature and our cognitive capacities fit for one another, without which hope the pursuit of theoretical knowledge would not seem worthwhile, and because it gives us hope that nature has a unity that is at least a pale reflection of the unity we imagine the metaphysical to have, without which hope we would not find it worthwhile to seek ever greater unity in our scientific explanations. However, the reflective and regulative employments of the method involve no cognitive claim whatsoever, hence no ontological commitment to things in themselves underlying natural phenomena. Second, the method for thinking of things as independent of the conditions necessary for our knowledge of them turns out-as Kant argues in the Critique oj Practical Reason-to be exactly the right method for practical reasoning, for we have to think of ourselves in this way if we are to act as free agents, capable of morality. However, the practical employment of this method involves no cognitive claim whatsoever, hence no ontological commitment to ourselves as things in themselves. This thoroughly nonmetaphysical account of Kant's critical philosophy has recently been developed with great subtlety and elegance:" It can account for much that Kant says about things in themselves in all three . critiques. However, I do not think that it can account for everything Kant says about things in themselves. There are passages that affirm the existence of things in themselves, seeming to acknowledge some ontological commitment. For example, at the end of the first Critique's Analytic, Kant writes: "Doubtless, indeed, there are intelligible entities corresponding to the sensible entities; there may also be intelligible entities to which our sensible faculty of intuition has no relation whatsoever; but our concepts of under45. See Bird (1962), Prauss (1974), and Allison (1983), (1990), (1996), (2001), (2004).

Kantian Dualism

41

standing, being mere forms of thought for our sensible intuition, could not in the least apply to thern.?" At the end of the first Critique's Dialectic, he says: "Thus, if one asks (in respect of a transcendental theology) first whether there is anything different from the world which contains the ground of the world order and its connection according to universal laws, then the answer is: Without a doubt. For the world is a sum of appearances, and so there has to be some transcendental ground for it, i.e., a ground thinkable merely by the pure understanding.'?" In the second and third critiques, Kant also speaks of our practical self-understanding-our understanding of agency as independent of the conditions necessary for human knowledge-as a "practical cognition.?" If this understanding, along with the moral theology it is supposed to warrant, is wholly without ontological commitment, then Kant should not regard it as cognitive at all.4 9 The proponent of the Two Methods Interpretation may dismiss such passages as residues of Kant's pre-critical past or as signs that even he is not free from the dialectical illusions he diagnoses. For my purposes, however, it is worth exploring what view emerges if one does not dismiss these passages, and what affinities such a view might have with German idealism. Set for the time being, the question of whether the in itself is an aspect of the entities available for our knowledge or whether it is existentially distinct. Can we know of the in itself-as I will say for now, in the service of neutrality-only that it is, or also what it is not, or perhaps even what it is? On this score there is an apparent conflict in Kant's thinking, for which I am going to propose a resolution that I hope will illuminate Kantian dualism. On the one hand, there are passages that strongly suggest that we can know some positive characteristics of the in itself. Primary among these are texts in which Kant adds an auxiliary consideration to his usual battery of arguments for the transcendental ideality of space. Everythingin our cognition that belongs to intuition ... contains nothing but mere relations; namely, of places in one intuition (extension), alteration of places (motion), and laws in accordance with which this alteration 46. Kant (1900- ), KrV, B309. 47. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A696/B725. 48. See, for example, Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 137: "thus there is indeed a cognition of God but only with practical reference"; and KpV, 5: 470, where the existence of God is said to be an object of "pure practical cognition that aims at [our! complying with [our! duties." 49. His view may in this respect, beginning with the Religion. See Forster (2000).

42

Kantian Dualism

is determined (moving forces). But what is present in the location, or what it produces in the things themselves besides the alteration of place, is not given through these relations. Now through mere relations no thing in itself is cognized; it is therefore right to judge that since nothing is given to us through outer sense except mere representation of relation, outer sense can also contain in its representation only the relation of an object to the subject, and not that which is internal to the object in itself. It is exactly the same in the case of inner sense. 50 But if, however, I realize (as has been shown in the Metaphysical Foundations oj Natural Science) that of corporeal nature' we cognize nothing other than space (which is nothing at all existent, but rather merely the condition for locations outside one another, thereby for merely external relations), the thing in space-except for the fact that space is' also in it (i.e., it is itself exrendedj-s-no effect other than motion (change of location, thereby of mere relations), consequently no force or passive property other than motive force and mobility (alteration of external relations) is given for cognition.... 51 Here Kant seems to argue as follows. The in itself must have certain positive characteristics-namely, the in itself must have monadic properties. Anything that is given to us through sensibility can have only ~relational properties. Therefore, anything that is given to us through sensibility is not the in itself. This argument surely presupposes that the in itself is the substantial ground of relational properties, a ground that must have at least some monadic properties, according to a metaphysical principle inherited from the roughly Leibnizian side of Kant's pre-critical project. 52 On the other hand, there are passages that strongly suggest that we cannot know any positive characteristics of the in itself. Consider, for example, this passage from the end of the Dialectic of the first Critique, cited above but now given in a longer form: Thus, if one asks (in respect of a transcendental theology) first whether there is anything different from the world which contains the ground of the world order and its connection according to universal laws, then the 50. Kant (1900- ), KrV, B67. See also A2831B339: "a persistent appearance in space (impenetrable extension) contains mere relations and nothing absolutely internal"; A2851B341: "whatever we can cognize only in matter is pure relations (that which we call their inner determinations is only comparatively internal)." 51. Kant (1900- ), BJPM, 8: 153. 52. See the helpful discussion in Warren (2001), 37-58.

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answer is: Withouta doubt. For the world is a sum of appearances, and so there has to he some transcendental ground for it, i.e., a ground thinkable merely by the pure understanding. If the question is second whether this being is substance, of the greatest reality, necessary, etc., then I answer that this question has no Significance at all. For all the categories through which I attempt to frame a concept of such an object are of none but an empirical use, and they have no sense at all when they are not applied to objects of possible experience, i.e., to the world of sense. Outside this field they are mere titles for concepts, which one might allow, but through which one can also understand nothing. 53 Kant is speaking here of God, the absolute ground of the in itself, not of the in grounded in God, which is under discussion in the previously cited passage. But if the categories do not have any nonempirical use that could enable us to say that God is substance, then they surely do not have any nonempirical use that could enable us to say that the in itself is substance. The point is also made more generally If after all this discussion anyone still has reservations about denying the categories a merely transcendental use, then he should test them in any synthetic assertion ... such as: "Everything that exists as substance, or a determination dependent on it," "Everything contingent exists as the effect of another thing, namely its cause," etc. Now] ask: Whence will he derive these synthetic propositions, since the concepts are not to hold of possible experience but rather of things in themselves (noumenat? Where is the third thing that is always requisite for a synthetic proposition in order to connect with each other concepts that have no logical (analytical) affinity?5'f What is to be made of this conflict? I propose to resolve it by means of a distinction between two ways in which Kant commits himself to the existence of the in itself. One mode of commitment does not warrant positive characterization, while the other does. To illustrate the first-s-which I will call the analytic-mode of commitment, consider the following passages: We can have cognition of no object as a thing in itself, but only insofar as it is an object of sensible intuition, i.e., as an appearance; from which follows the limitation of all even possible speculative cognition of reason 53. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A6961B725. 54. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A259/B314-315.

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to mere objects of experience, Yet the reservation must also be well noted, that even if we cannot cognize these same objects as things in themselves, we at least must be able to think them as things in themselves. For otherwise there would follow the absurd proposition that there is an appearance without anything that appears.>" But the cause on account of which, not yet satisfied through the substratum of sensibility, one must add noumena that only the pure understanding can think to the phaenomena, rests solely on this. Sensibility and its field, namely that of appearances, are themselves limited by the understanding, in that they do not pertain to things in themselves, but only to the way in which, on account of our subjective constitution, things appear to us, This was the result of the entire Transcendental Aesthetic, and it also follows naturally from the concept of an appearance in general that something must correspond to it which is not in itself appearance, for appearance can be nothing for itself and outside of our kind of representation; thus, if there is not to be a constant circle, the word "appearance" must already indicate a relation to something the immediate representation of which is, to be sure, sensible, but which in itself, without this constitution of our sensibility (on which the form of our intuition is grounded), must be something, i.e., an object independent of sensibility. 56

Nevertheless, if we call certain objects, as appearances, beings of sense (phaenomena), because we distinguish the way in which we intuit them from their constitution in itself, then it already follows from our concept that to these we as it were oppose, as objects thought merely through the understanding, either other objects conceived in accordance with the latter constitution, even though we do not intuit it in them, or else other possible things, which are not objects of our senses at all, and call these beings of understanding (noumena). 57 Here the central point is analytic: it is a feature of the concept of appearance that to apply that concept to some existent is to imply that there is some existent to which applies the concept of the in itself-the concept of a ground of appearance that is in some way independent of the appearance. At most, this analytic thesis could yield what Kant calls a noumenon in the negative sense, and any attempt to characterize it positively would be illicit. For example, it would be fallacious to infer that, because there must be a ground of appearance that is in some way independent of the appearance55. Kant (1900- ),KrV, Bxxvi-xxvii. 56, Kant (1900- ), KrV, A251-252. 57, Kant (1900- ), KrV,B306.

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that is, independent of relation to the forms of human sensibility-therefore this ground of appearance must be substantial and have some properties that are not only unrelated to the forms of human sensibility but that are wholly nonrelational. Note, however, first, that analytic commitment to the in itself involves commitment to a far from negligible negative characterization: the in itself is not spatial, and is therefore not material." Second, since this mode of commitment is analytic, it cannot be negated without contradiction or, as Kant puts it, "absurdity." The analytic mode of commitment, I want to claim, represents what has become of the absolutely necessary level of metaphysics, transformed and emptied of all but existential commitment, but therefore not abolished, by the Copernican revolution. 59 For the second-which I will call the synthetic-mode of commitment, consider the following passages: In an object of the pure understanding only that is internal that has no relation (as far as the existence is concerned) to anything that is different from it. The inner determinations of a substantia phaenomenon in space, on the contrary, are nothing but relations, and it is entirely a sum total of mere relations.GO Substances in general must have something inner, which is therefore free of all outer relations, consequently also of composition. The simple is therefore the foundation of the inner in things in themselves.v' Above we noted limits of reason with respect to all cognition of mere beings of thought; now ... we can also determine the boundaries of pure reason; for in all boundaries there is something positive (e.g., a surface is the boundary of corporeal space, yet is nonetheless itself a space; a line is a space, which is the boundary of a surface; a point is the boundary of a line, yet is nonetheless a locus in space), where limits contain mere negations. The limits announced ... are still not enough after we have found that something lies beyond them (although we will never cognize 58. Hence what Ameriks calls "mere immaterialism." See, for example, the postscript to Ameriks (2000b) 59. One might ask: why use the concept of appearance in the first place? If one did not employ that concept, no commitment to the in itself would be undertaken. Here; I think, Kant would appeal to his primary arguments for transcendental idealism, for example, to the argument from geometry in the Transcendental Aesthetic: mathematics could not be applicable to nature in the way that it is, if not for an intimacy between nature and our minds that requires us to regard nature as essentially in relation to us, hence as appearance. 60. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A265/B321. 61. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A271/B330.

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what that something may be in itself). For the question now arises: How does our reason relate to the connection of that with which we are acquainted to that with which we are not acquainted, and never will be? Here is a real connection of the known to the wholly unknown (which it will always remain), and if the unknown should not become the least bit better known-as in fact is not to be hoped-the concept of this connection must still be able to be determined and brought to clarity. We should, then, think [or ourselvesan immaterial being, an intelligible world, and a highest of all beings (all noumena), because only in these things, as things in themselves, does reason find completion and satisfaction, which it can never hope to find in the derivation of the appearances from the homogeneous grounds of those appearances; and we should think such things [or ourselves because the appearances actually do relate to something distinct [rom them (and so entirely heterogeneous), in that appearances always presuppose a thing in itself, and so they provide notice of such a thing, whether or not it can be cognized more closely.62 Kant's thinking here may, I believe, be expressed as follows. The requirement that genuine groundings terminate in an absolute is an unavoidable demand of reason. This demand gives rise to certain necessities in the way we conceive the in itself, thus to what may be called a conception of the noumenon in the positive sense. On the one hand, this conception is empty as far as theoretical cognition is concerned. No intuition that is possible for us could enable us to apply the conception to any object, or even to determine whether it is in principle applicable to any object. But a synthetic judgment is ofan object, involving the application of concepts to that object via some appropriate intuition. So we cannot make the affirmative judgment, say, that the in itself is substantial. However we can and indeed must think that the in itself is substantial. Although empty in the sense of lacking application to an object given in intuition, and therefore falling short of Kant's requirements for a synthetic judgment, this thought has propositional content. And the necessity that links the idea of the in itself with the idea of the substantial-with the idea of a nonrelational ground for relational properties-is not analytic but synthetic a priOli. If the in itself were not substantial, then there would be no contradiction. But there would be a conflict with reason's demand for grounding that terminates in an absolute. What links the subject and predicate concepts is neither conceptual

62. Kant (1900- ), Prol, 4: 354--355.

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necessity nor intuition, but rather the supposition that there is an escape from the Agrippan trilernma. This supposition is not negligible. We cannot, as rational beings, be satisfied with mere limits of our theoretical cognition, but m.ust determine boundaries. Still, there is a logical possibility that reason's demand could fail to be met. So, to questions about how the in itself is, we cannot answer "Without a doubt," as we can to questions ahout whether the in itself is. The synthetic mode of commitment, I want to claim, represents what has become of the hypothetically necessary level of metaof applicability, but not of meaning and physics, transformed and use, by the Copernican revolution. Thus we find ourselves in the following situation. At the ground of appearances, there must lie the in itself, on pain of logical contradiction. As a matter of absolute necessity, the in itself can be said to exist, but can be given no positive characterization whatsoever, although it can be given certain negative characterizations, since it is not spatial and is therefore not material. However, as a matter of hypothetical necessity-that is, on the supposition that reason's demands are met, which is by definitionreasonable-we must think of the in itself as positively meeting reason's demand for absolute grounding. The content of hypothetical necessity may be determined neither progressively from the content of absolute necessity, for the synthetic a priori has been thoroughly severed from the analytic, nor regressively from the structure of the empirical world, for the pitfall of subreption must be avoided. Nevertheless, hypothetical necessity has some content, however thin, and it remains a matter for speculation to which Kant occasionally returns, throughout the critical period. Thus Kant may still be seen as responding to the problem that seemed to Leibniz to call for Derivability Monism. For Kant is still responsive to two demands, which are in apparent conflict. The first is the Dualistic Demand for a rigorous separation of the physical and the metaphysical, or the sensible and the intellectual. Although the Copernican revolution leaves little of speculative metaphysics and denies it the status of theoretical cognition, it does-and, in Kant's view, must-leave something. So the Dualistic Demand does not collapse into the demand that the metaphysical be exiled from the foundations of physics. It remains, at the same time, the demand that the physical be rigorously excluded from the metaphysical realm of the i11; itself. The second is the Monistic Demand that every genuine grounding participate in a single systematic unity of grounds, terminating in a single absolute ground. Although the Copernican revolution evacuates

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this conception of systematicity almost entirely, commitment to the intelligible world-to a grounding that is ultimately absolute-survives. How should the resulting Kantian dualism of the in itself and the appearance be characterized? The Two Methods Interpretation, I contend, cannot account for either the analytic or the synthetic mode of commitment to the in itself. Which, then, is to be preferred: the Two Aspects or the Two Existents view? Neither. The correct view would be more accurately called the Two Essencesview.6 3 Properly understood, it renders the.question "Two aspects or two existents?" unaskable. To understand the Two Essences view, we need to consider one of the major innovations of the Critique of Pure Reason: the distinction between the transcendental and the empirical. This innovation, hinted at but not developed in the Dissertation, gives the Copernican revolution another formulation: appearances, which are the sole objects of our theoretical cognition, are transcendentally ideal, yet empirically real. In contrast, the in itself is transcendentally real.64 But what is the import of these terms? Let us first consider the contrast between the transcendental and the empirical. There are two applications of the contrast. The first picks out two kinds of cognition: I call all cognition transcendental that is occupied not so much with objects but rather with our {A: a priori concepts of objects} {B: modes of cognition of objects insofar as this is to be possible a priori}. A system of such concepts would be called transcendental philosophy.P" Here the contrast is between transcendental and empirical cognition. Empirical cognition-or, equivalently, experience-is theoretical cognition of

63. Among existing interpretations of Kant's transcendental idealism, the view developed here is perhaps closest to that of Karl Ameriks, although significant differences remain. See, most recently, Ameriks (2003a), 1-40. 64. It is important to note that the conflict between what Kant calls transcendental idealism and what he calls transcendental realism primarily concerns the status of appearances. The transcendental idealist rigorously distinguishes appearances from the in itself and, because she applies the correct standard of truth to appearances-i-the standard of conformity to the formal conditions of human cognition, not to the in itself-she is able to be an empirical realist. In contrast, the transcendental realist fails to distinguish appearances from the in itself, and thus applies to ap~ pearances a standard of reality-c-namely, conformity to the in itself-which appearances cannot meet, and so is forced wllly-nilly into empirical idealism. 65. Kant (1900- ), KrV, AI1lB25.

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objects. Transcendental cognition is cognition of the a priori necessary conditions for the possibility of cognition of objects. For example, transcendental cognition is concerned with a priori concepts of objects or categories, and with corresponding principles. Note that, although investigation of the necessary conditions of experience counts as transcendental cognition, the possibility is not excluded that there is also an investigation of the necessary conditions of practical cognition that counts equally as transcendental cognition. So it would be imprecise to identify transcendental cognition with cognition of the necessary conditions of experience. In its second application, the contrast picks out two registers of meaning: But since the expression outside us carries with it an unavoidable ambiguity, since it sometimes signifies something that, as a thing in itself, exists distinct from us and sometimes merely something that belongs to outer appearance, then in order to escape uncertainty and use this concept in the latter significance... we will distinguish empirically external objects from those that might be called "external"in the transcendental sense, by directly calling them "things that are to be encountered in space."66 Here the contrast is between two of meaning of the further contrast: real versus ideal, or outer versus inner. At a first pass, one might suggest that the contrast between real and ideal is the contrast between that which is independent of us, or that which is mind-independent, and that which is dependent upon us, or mind-dependent. Then, empirically inflected, the contrast will pick out, on the one hand, that which is in space. and, on the other, that which is within an individual mind. Transcendentally inflected, it will distinguish between, on the one hand, that which is independent of the necessary conditions of human cognition and in this respect mind-independent, and that which is subject to those conditions or mind-dependent. But more than this can be said. Specifically, consideration of the term realenables more to be said about the use of the verb "to be" in formulations such as "that which is mind-dependent" and "that which is mindindependent." For it has been pointed out that Kant does not use the term real interchangeably with aduai," For example, when, in his criticism of -. 66, Kant (1900- ). KrV) A373. Cf. Kant (1900-- ), PFM, 20: 269, where Kant distinguishes between "the transcendental sense" or "appearance" and the sense appropriate to "the language of experience." 67_ See Seigfried (1982).

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the ontologicalargument, Kant objects that "to he" is not-a "real predicate," he does not mean that it is not actually a predicate at all, which might be meant by a contemporary logician who follows Gottlob Frege in thinking that existence statements should be expressed through the apparatus of quantificational, not merely propositional logic. Kant's point is that "to be" is not a predicate signifying a property that could be properly included in an explication of the reality or substantial being or essence of a thing. In the post-Leibnizian tradition, reality or substantial being or essence is explained within the framework of a metaphysics that seeks to respond to the Agrippan trilemma. Thus something's degree of reality or substantial being corresponds to its contribution to a genuine grounding that terminates in an absolute ground. As the absolute ground, God is the ens realissimum, for He grounds all things while, as a necessary being, needing no ground outside Himself. Among created beings, substances have the most reality for, although they depend for their existence on God, they have essences or complete concepts comprised of properties that enable them to serve as grounds for other properties. Real properties are those that can comprise an essence. However, properties that are grounded in a substance but that cannot themselves serve as grounds may be called ideal. Mental representations are paradigmatic instances but not necessarily the only ones. Underlying this usage is the assumption that grounding is an asymmetric and context-independent relatio~ that structures a hierarchy. When Kant says that "to be" is not a real predicate, his point is that no light is shed on the place of something in the hierarchy of grounding when one says that this something is or exists. Such a predication is equivalent to the assertion that something is actual, and therefore actually plays the role in the hierarchy of grounding assigned to it through its real predicates, which comprise its complete concept independently of whether or not it is actualized by God. It follows that the contrast between, on the one hand, transcendental reality and ideality, and, on the other, empirical reality and ideality, is a contrast between two hierarchies of grounding. The transcendental hierarchy of grounding is appropriate to the in itself. The empirical hierarchy of grounding is appropriate to appearances. Put another way, the contrast between the in itself and appearances is a contrast between two const.ruals of substantial being or essence. This interpretation coheres well with the point that the Kantian dualism of the in itself and the appearance constitutes a response to the Dualistic

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Demand and the Monistic Demand, and ultimately to the Agrippan trilemma. As in Leibniz, there are two orders of grounding, such that one is subject to the Agrippan trilemma while the other is not, and such that the former is in some way dependent upon-an appearance of-the latter. However, the former or empirical order is not phenomenal in Leibniz's sense of the term because it has its own standards of reality: the necessary conditions of human cogntttcn." Thus the Copernican revolution transforms but does not abolish the Leibnizian duality. It is now possible to see why the question "Two aspects or two existents?" is HI-formed. Only when dealing with existents possessing the same kind of essence, or participating in the same grounding hierarchy, does it make sense to ask whether two descriptions pick out one existent or two. Kant himself points out that the individuation of appearances, which may involve nothing more than spatial location relative to time, cannot provide a model for the individuation of the in itself, which is neither spatial nor temporaL To ask whether the in itself and the appearance are two aspects or two entities is to presuppose falselythat a method of individuation and counting may be applied to both the noumenal and the phenomenal.v?

1.6 At this point, two objections are likely to be raised. The first, textual objection, is that I have said nothing to account for the passages that seem to support the insistence on one realm of existents by proponents of both the Two Methods and Two Aspects views. These are passages where Kant speaks of the very same objects considered as appearance and as thing in itself. The second, philosophical objection, is that I have said nothing to explain in what sense appearances are supposed to depend upon things in themselves, a thesis objected to by all proponents of the Two Methods view and by some proponents of the Two Aspects view. My response to the second objection will enable me to respond to the first. But this response requires an investigation of the more articulated versions of Kantian dualism available only through the development of an account of the faculties. The Agrippan trilemma enables an elegant sketch of Kant's doctrine of 68. Nor is it ideal in Leibniz's sense, insofar as that would mean, not merely dependent upon mental activity but mental. See Chapter 3. 69. See Gardner (1999), 297-298.

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the faculties. Sensibility is the faculty concerned solely with grounding relations subject to the Agrippan trilemma. Understanding is the Janusfaced faculty concerned either with grounding relations subject to the Agrippan trilemma, insofar as it is employed in the determination of empirically real objects, or with grounding relations that escape the Agrippan trilemrna, insofar as it is employed in the thought of transcendentally real things in themselves. Reason is the faculty concerned solely with grounding relations that escape the Agrippan trilernma, Finally, judgment is the faculty concerned simultaneously both with grounding relations subject to the Agrippan trilemma and with grounding relations that escape it. Two familiar ways in which German idealists and other post-Kantians interpret Kantian dualism are incompatible with my thesis that Kant, like Leibniz and the German idealists, is responsive to the problem of simultaneously satisfying the Dualistic Demand and the Monistic Demand. One approach, pioneered by Karl Leonhard Reinhold, denies in effectthat Kant is responsive to the Dualistic Demand. The other, pioneered by Salomon Maimon, denies in effect that Kant is responsive to the Monistic Demand. Both of these remarkably influential interpretations of Kant, I am going to argue, are incorrect and misrepresent Kant's doctrine of the faculties, obscuring the relationship between Kantian dualism and German Idealism. It is helpful to begin with Maimon because his response to Kantian dualism provides a helpful framework within which to situate a range of possible interpretations, and because his remarks show that what is ultimately at stake is Kant's ability to respond to Agrippan skepticism about empirical cognition. One of Maimon's most suggestive formulations is that the fundamental problem of transcendental philosophy-the question qUid juris concerning our right to apply the categories to sensuously given objects7°-is equivalent both to the question of creation, which was central to the concerns of medieval philosophers like Moses Maimonides, and to the question of the community of soul and body, which was central to the concerns of early modern philosophers like Descartes. As Maimon explains, "The question of the explanation of the unification of soul and body is ... reduced to the following question: how is it conceivable that forms a prtori should agree with things given a posteriori? And the second question is reduced to the 70. For Kant's distinction between the questions quidjuris and qUid facti, see Kant (1900- ), KrV,AS5/B1l7.

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following: how is the coming-to-be of matter, as something merely given but not thought, conceivable through the assumption of an intelligence, since they are indeed so heterogeneous?"?' Maimon takes the question quid juris to be primarily the question: how is it possible to apply forms of intelligibility to given matter? Now Maimon famously claims that the question is simply unanswerable on the Kantian assumption that "sensibility and understanding are two wholly different sources of our knowledge." However, he says, the question is answerable on what amounts to a twofold assumption, ascribed by Maimon to Leibniz and Christian Freiherr von Wolff. The first assumption, as Maimon puts it in the Versl,lch, is that the cognitions of sensibility and understanding flow from a single source and differ only in degree of completeness." Or, as Maimon puts it in his commentary to Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed, "the understanding and sensibility are not things distinct from one another with a real distinction, but rather with a merely formal distinction.v? The second assumption is that our finite intellect is "exactly the same as" an assumed infinite intellect, "only in a limited way." Or, as Maimon puts it in his commentary, "the difference between the infinite intellect, may it be exalted, and our intellect [is] be merely formal.'?" What is at stake should be clear, in light of my earlier discussion. Maimon worries that Kant is committed to two wholly distinct kinds of grounding, one subject to the Agrippan trilemma and the other not. But there can be an adequate answer to Agrippan skepticism only if a kind of grounding that is subject to the Agrippan trilemma can be shown to be derivative from some kind of grounding that escapes the trilemma and terminates in an absolute ground. So, adopting a version of Kant's transcendental method, Maimon wants to show that a certain kind of grounding that terminates in an absolute ground-whose details do not concern us here-is a necessary condition for the knowability of sensuously given-objects. For my purposes here, what is important is Maimon's invocation of the scholastic doctrine of distinctions, which he uses to frame his difference'

71. 72. 73. 74.

Mairnon (2000a), Tr, 2:.62-63. Maimon (2000a), Tr, 2:63. Maimon (2000b), GhM, 107. Maimon (2000b), GhM, 107.

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from Kant, not the details of Maimon's own position." For that doctrine provides an extremely useful framework for the discussion of Kantian dualism, of misunderstandings of that dualism, and of alternatives to it. A real distinction-the sort of distinction that Descartes sought to demonstrate between body and mind-is a distinction between terms that are intelligible independently of one another, such as distinct substances, or modes of distinct substances." When Maimon speaks offorrnal distinctions, he may mean either modal distinctions or rational distinctions. 77 Two 75. For more on Maimon, see Franks (2004). 76. For a classic discussion of real, modal, and rational distinctions, as well as an argument that no other distinctions need to be added to the list, see Suarez (1947). These distinctions have

occasioned much terminological variation and confusion. But, in the wake of Suarez, there appears to be widespread consensus about the extensions of these distinctions, while there are.at least two distinct traditions concerning their intensions, corresponding to two traditions conceming the concept of substance. Thus real distinctions obtain between distinct substances or between modes of distinct substances; modal distinctions between an essential property of a substance and a mode of the same substance, or between modes of one substance; and rational distinctions obtain between an object and itself, considered under two concepts. In the Cartesian tradition, these distinctions are explained as follows:X and Yare really distinct iff each can exist when the other does not; X and Yare modally distinct iff either one can exist when the other does not, but not vice versa, or either can exist when the other does not, but they have a necessary condition for their existence in common; and X and Yare rationally distinct iff neither can exist when the other does not. See Descartes (1964-1976), VII 100, 120-121; VILIA 28-30; IV 348-350. See also Gilson (1979),86--90; Wells (1966); Secada (2000), 194-197. In the Leibnizian tradition, the distinctions are explained differently: X and Yare really distinct iff each is intelligible independently of the other; X and Y are modally distinct iff one is intelligible independently of the other, but not vice versa, or either can exist without the other, but they have a necessary condition for their intelligibility in common; and X and Yare rationally distinct iff they have all necessary conditions for their intelligibility in common. The Leibnizian-Wolffian school regards the Cartesian account of substance or real distinction as an error that leads to Spinozism by leaving no room for finite, dependent substances. See, for example, WolfPs refutation of Spinoza in Wolff (1978- ), XV,and Kant's remarks in Kant (1900- ), 28: 564. Both Kant and Maimon should be situated in the Leibniziau rather than the Cartesian tradition. 77. The term forinal distinction is attributable to Duns Scotus, and the confusion surrounding the term may be traceable to Scotus's own formulations. See Grajewski (1944), for example, 5 n.6: "at times Duns Scotus substitutes the formal distinction for the virtual distinction of the Thomists (e.g. among the atmbures of God): on other occasions, he uses the formal distinction in lieu of the real distinction (e.g., the distinction of the faculties of the soul)." For more sympathetic accounts, see Adams (1982), 412-A 17; Cross (1999), 149; and King (2003), 22-25. Suarez (J 947) argues that, insofar as it is useful, the formal distinction is reducible either to a rational distinction in which one thing is considered under two inadequate concepts, or to a modal distinction between an essential property of a substance and a mode of the same substance. He therefore argues for the abandonment of the term formal distinction'and for the adoption of the term modal distinction. In what follows, I assume that, in the wake of Suarez, Maimon uses the term formal distinction as equivalent to modal distinction, and not to signify any pecuharty-Scoust distinction, say, between existentiallyinseparable yet definitionally-c-and not merely notionaily-i-dlstinct aspects of a thing.

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terms are modally distinct iff one is unintelligible without the other, but not vice versa. For example, a mode may be unintelligible without reference to the substance of which it is a mode, but the substance may be intelligible without reference to the mode. Two terms are rationally distinct iff each is unintelligible without the other. For example, a substance is intelligible only with reference to its essence and vice versa. If, like Maimon, we are going to apply this set of distinctions to Kantian faculties, then we must make a crucial further distinction which, unfortunately, is not drawn by Maimon or by Reinhold or, for that matter, by many others. Namely, we must distinguish between distinctions between faculties-that is, capacities-and distinctions between exercises offacultiesthat is, actualizations." Now, any interpretation of Kant's account of the faculties should satisfy both of the following desiderata. The desideratum is that each of the faculties considered in the first two Critiques-sensibility, understanding, and reason-must have a distinctive exercise, by means of which its tinctive a priori principle can be discerned. Thus sensibility finds its tinctive use in geometry, understanding in logic, reason in practical deliberation with the categorical imperative as its highest principle, and judgment in aesthetic judgment. 79

It would be interesting, however, to explore the possibility of a more Scotist approach. I am grateful to Stephen Dumont for helpful discussion. 78. This further distinction also helps illuminate contemporary debates about whether the content of perception is nonconceptuaL In his advocacy of nonconceptual content, Evans is concerned, in part, with the distinction between the faculties of sensibility and understanding. For he holds that animals have in the way we do, but that we also have understanding. See Evans (1982), 124. Thus he holds at least that there is a modal distinction between sensibility and understanding, for sensibility is intelligible without understanding. If he were also committed to the view that the latter is intelligible without the former, that a could have understanding without then he would be committed to a real distinction between the faculties, but it is implausible that he in fact takes this view. Christopher Peacocke is also an advocate of nonconceptual content, but differs from Gareth Evans in the Iollowingway, He does not agree that animals have in the way we do, maintaining instead that human sensibility is unintelligible without reference to understanding-,That is, only a being with conceptual capacities could have senses in the way we do. However, as I understand it, Peacocke's local holism involves the view that there are exercises of sensibility that are really distinct from exercises of the understanding, although the distinction between the faculties of sensibility and understanding is rational. The contents made available through really distinct exercises of sensibility are nonconceptual. See Peacocke (1992), 90-92; McDowell (1994), 56-60; and the exchange between Peacocke and McDowellin Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 58, No.2 (1998), 386, 418--419, 79. A comment by Justin Shaddock led to some improvements in the formulation of this paragraph.

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The second desideratum is that the possibility of some collaborative exercises of faculties must be guaranteed. Most famously; experience is possible only if it is guaranteed that sensibility and understanding can be exercised collaboratively in synthetic a priori judgments. This does not mean only that we must necessarily presuppose such a possibility as a condition for the possibility of experience. It means also that there must be a necessity in the collaboration itself: anything that can be given through sensibility must necessarily be subject to the categories-that is, to the fundamental concepts of the understanding. Maimon and Reinhold exemplify two ways of misunderstanding Kantian dualism by construing one of the desiderata in a way that makes the satisfaction of the other impossible. Maimon thinks that, since Kant is committed to distinctive uses of faculties, he must be committed to really distinct Iaculties.s? If this were so, then one could have sensibility without reason and vice versa, and one also could have understanding without reason and vice versa. Then Kantian dualism would be comparable to Cartesian dualism: we would have sensibility insofar as we are corporeal beings and understanding insofar as we are rational beings, and it would be extremely difficult to see how human beings with both faculties could constitute substantial unities. Indeed, we might well conclude-as Maimon does-that the second desideratum cannot be satisfied, hence that the problem of the Transcendental Deduction cannot be solved on Kantian assumptions. But the mistake here lies in the inference from distinctive exercises to really distinct faculties. For there is no contradiction in the thought that faculties that are modally or ration80. Pains must be taken to avoid terminological confusion here. For example, Laywine (1994), 104, writes: "So this much is clear at the outset of the Illaugliral Dissertatioll: we must make a real distinction between sensibility and the understanding. It is not enough to say as and the followers of Leibmz that knowledge conveyed to us by the first faculty is somehow more confused and less distinct than knowledge conveyed to us by the second." According to my usage, there is no real distinction between the faculties in the Inaugural Dissertation. However, Kant's position here is that both sensibility and understanding are faculties of cognition, and there appears to be a real distinction between the objects of cognition proper to the two faculties. Nevertheless, there need be no disagreement between Laywine and myself. for she may not be using the term real distinction in the scholastic sense. She seems, rather, to be using Kant's pre-critical distinction between the real and the logical. In the critical period, this becomes the distinction between the" transcendental and the logical, or between transcendental logic and general logic. Laywine's point is that, for Kant in 1770, the distinction between sensibility and understanding does not merely concern the general logical characteristics such as clarity and distinctness, but concerns rather a transcendental distinction between a priori conditions of possibility.

weur

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ally distinct may have distinctive uses. Indeed, there is no contradiction in the thought that modally distinct faculties may have really distinct uses." Reinhold thinks that, since Kant is committed to necessary collaborations of faculties, he must reject exercises of faculties that are more than rationally distinct. Although Reinhold takes himself to be defending Kant's views, he in fact renders impossible the satisfaction of the first desideratum, and he distorts Kantian dualism into a kind of monism." Thus, on Reinhold's interpretation, things in themselves are not thinkable yet unknowable, as they are for Kant. Instead, things in themselves are unthinkable and incomprehensible, and therefore-by a trivial inference-unknowable. For Reinhold does not leave room for distinctive uses of either understanding or reason that could yield either a negative or a positive conception of a noumenon.P How, then, should Kant's own view about the relationship between sensibility and understanding be characterized? Certainly each of these faculties must be accorded its own distinctive use. But, as I have said, this is not sufficient to foreclose any of the possible distinctions between the faculties. However, satisfaction of the second desideratum-the project of the Transcendental Deduction-rules out, as Maimon sees, the possibility of a real distinction between the faculties. So the distinction must be either modal or rational. I will argue that it is modal.?" Now, in Section 26 of the B-edition Transcendental Deduction, Kant says that the unity of the formal intuition of space was ascribed in the

81. This is, I think, what Peacocke has in mind when he speaks, in Peacocke (1998),386, of "nonconceptualist positions which ... regard conceptual and nonconceptual contents as forming a local holism. For these positions, neither kind of content can be given a constitutive elucidation without reference to the other; but there remains a distinction between them." On local holisms, see Peacocke (1992). 82. See Reinhold (1789), Vl'V, 235, for the view that the matter and form of representation are only notionally distinct: "both matter and form constitute representation indeed only through their unification. and may not be separated from one another without the representation being thereby destroyed." Reinhold goes on.to say that, "It is equally true that they are essentially distinct constituents of representation, and cannot be confused with one another, without bringing about a misunderstanding that must be extremely consequential in philosophy, and has actually been present until now." See 217-218 below. 83. See Ameriks's illuminating essays on so-called short arguments for transcendental idealism, beginning with Reinhold, collected in Ameriks (2000a). 84. I leave for discussion elsewhere two possible views: [hat the faculties are rationally distinct but may have really distinct uses; that the faculties are formally distinct in some other, genuinely Scotist sense. '

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Transcendental Aesthetic "merely to sensibility, only in order to note that it precedes all concepts, although to he sure it presupposes a synthesis, which does not belong to the senses but through which all concepts of space and time first become possible" and through which "the understanding determines the sensibility.Y' He also says that "it is one and the same spontaneity that, there under the name of imagination and here under the name of understanding, brings combination into the manifold of intuition.?" Here Kant ascribes primacy to understanding over sensibility. For it is the former that determines the latter, not vice versa. In addition, Kant offers what he claims to be a strict deduction of the determinate forms of judgment, while offering no such deduction of the detel~ninate forms of sensibility/" This suggests that a finite rational being essentially has a discursive understanding with determinate forms of judgment whereas, while such a being must also have some faculty of affection, it is neither essential nor necessary to have our forms of sensibility: space and time.88 We must distinguish between receptivity in general and specifically human sensibilio/. Discursive understanding is rationally distinct from sensibility in general. For we cannot make discursive understanding intelligible without reference to receptivity in general, although no reference to specifically human sensibility is required, And we cannot make receptivity in general intelligible without reference to discursive understanding. However, discursive understanding is modally distinct from specifically human sensibility. For we can make discursive understanding intelligible without reference to specifically human sensibility, but we cannot make specifically human sensibility intelligible without reference to discursive understanding. It is on this last point that Kant's resolution of the Transcendental Deduction problem ultimately rests. However, to say in this sense that understanding determines sensibility is not to say that the forms of specifically human sensibility-space and time-can be derived from the forms of understanding. Such a derivation . would be impossible, Kant thinks, because-as we have seen-through forms of the understanding alone one can think things in themselves,

85. Kant (190Q.-· 86. Kant (1900· 87. Kant (1900B159. 88. Kant (1900-

), KrV, B161n. ), KrV, B162n. ), KrV, A67/B92-AB1l3, known as the Metaphysical Deduction, thanks to ), KrV, B72.

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which, supposing reason's demands to be met, must constitute nonrelational grounds [or relational properties. But through the forms of specifically human sensibility the only objects that can be given are nothing but relations: objects that are what they are in part because of their careers within the relational' framework of space and time. There is no possible derivation. [rom forms of understanding-that is, from conceptual formseither of synthetic a priori truths about the space-time framework, such as the truths that render it Euclidean rather than non-Euclidean, or of the natures of the objects that are what they are within that framework. Unlike the forms of the understanding, which are necessarily determinate and hence the same for any species of finite rational being, the forms of sensibilityand hence the forms of finite intelligibility, which express guaranteed collaborations between understanding and sensibility, that is, the schernatized categories-are contingently determinable. 89 In other words, the distinctionbetween understanding and specifically human sensibility is modal but not derivational. Thus Kant's account of the relationship between understanding and sensibility suggests Dependence Monism, but not the Derivability Monism of Leibniz, let alone the Derivation Monism of the German idealists. Nevertheless, if Kant is a Dependence Monist, then he is still responsive, like Leibniz and the German idealists, to the problem of simultaneously' satisfying the Dualistic Demand and the Monistic Demand. But this overlap in problematics is lost on Maimon and Reinhold, along with those who follow them. The real distinctions between the faculties that Maimon mistakenly ascribes to Kant are incompatible with the Monistic Demand. However, Maimon himself repudiates this real distinction. So Mannon's own attitude to the fundamental dualism remains untouched by what has been said here. Reinhold, however, affirms the rational distinctions between the uses of the faculties that he mistakenly ascribes to Kant. These rational distinctions are surely incompatible with Kant's doctrine of faculties since, I have claimed, Kant's first Critique faculties are faculties only insofar as. they have really distinct uses. More generally, these rational distinctions seem incompatible with the Dualistic Demand. But does that entail that Reinhold cannot inherit Kant's dualism in any way? It entails at least that he cannot ._--_._-- - - 89. The contingent determinability of the forms of sensibility is either neglected or denied by proponents of both the German and British traditions of nondualistic Kant reading. On Heidegger, see Henrich (1994),223-224, n.67.

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inherit it as a dualism between two orders of grounding. For, if there is no use of the understanding that is really distinct from any reception through the senses, then things in themselves are not merely unknowable but unthinkable. Indeed, Reinhold seems committed to a dualism between the intelligible and the unintelligible, the unintelligible being the proper object of faith.?" As we shall see in Chapter 4, Fichte's central criticism of Reinhold's pioneering version of the German idealist project IS that it fails to adequately acknowledge the crucial dualism of the empirical and the transcendental. Reinhold's position is opposed to Kantian dualism, but it has not yet been shown that German idealism in general must inherit this hostility. The overlap between the problems to which Kant is responsive and those to which both Leibniz and the German idealists respond has been lost on dominant traditions of Kant interpretation, on both the Anglo-American and Continental sides of the divide. For they have seen themselves as forced to choose between a real distinction between the faculties, mistakenly ascribed to Kant by Maimon, and rational distinctions between the uses of the faculties, mistakenly ascribed to Kant by Reinhold. Since, as Maimon is the first to argue, the former view makes it impossible to solve the problem of the Transcendental Deduction, sympathetic interpreters have proposed various versions of the latter." Still, it will be said, despite the overlap of problems, a fundamental differencebetween the responses remains. After all, Kant is committed only to Dependence Monism and rejects the Derivability Monism of Leibniz, let 90, This comes out most clearly in Reinhold's attempt to mediate between Fichte and Jacobi. See Reinhold (1799), SLF. 91. Anglo-American interpreters have tended to view sensibility and understanding as reciprocally dependent abstractions from concrete experience, See Strawson (1966), 47--51. As such, there is at most a rational distinction between sensibility and understanding. According to the development of the Strawsonian interpretation by McDowell (1994), 3-4, they are not even notionally-c-that is, rationally-distinct. See also Cassara (1999), Continental interpreters have tended to pursue the hint they find at A15/B29 that sensibility and understanding stem from a common root. In principle, this can be taken to mean that the two faculties are modally distinct as modes of an underlying capacity. However, it can lead to the view that the two faculties are only rationally distinct. The key question is whether the putatively underlying capacity is intelligible in terms independent of sensibility and understanding, If so, then a modal distinction be-. tween the faculties remains an option. If not, then it does not, and sensibility and understanding turn out to be two aspects of a single capacity. For an illuminating survey of the Continental tradition and its origin in a misreading of Kant, see Henrich (1994), 17-54, From my point of view, however, Henrich is too quick in assuming that German idealists who seek a common root-that is, a first principle-s-must take a position like Reinhold's, which is incompatible with both Kant's doctrine of the faculties and his fundamental dualism,

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alone, the Derivation Monism of the German idealists. This is true, if Derivation Monism is concerned with the relationship between understanding and sensibility. However, I am going to argue that there is a version of Derivation Monism to which Kant himself is attracted, a version that concerns the relationship between reason and understanding.

1.7 It is in his descriptions of the Metaphysical Deduction of the categories of

the understanding that Kant sounds most like the German idealists in his conception of systematicity. Thus he says that his pure consideration of the understanding can succeed only if the categories he adduces "entirely exhaust the entire field of pure understanding. Now this completeness of a science cannot reliably be assumed from a rough calculation of an ag- . gregate put together by mere estimates; hence it is possible only by means of an idea of the whole of the a priori cognition of the understanding, and through the division of concepts that such an idea determines and that constitutes it, thus only through their connection in a system. "92 Consequently: "Transcendental philosophy has the advantage but also the obligation to seek its concepts in accordance with a principle, since they spring pure and unmixed from the understanding, as absolute unity, and must therefore be connected among themselves in accordance with a concept or idea."?" Indeed, Kant claims that his table of categories "is systematically generated from a common principle."?" These categories, systematically derived from a first principle, then provide Kant with the clue that guides him through every region of the critical philosophy. It may not sound very promising to appeal to the Metaphysical Deduction. For neither German idealists nor, for the most part, Kantians have claimed to discern its common principle and to trace the systematic generation of the categories from it. At the very dawn of German idealism, Reinhold views the Metaphysical Deduction as a preeminent symptom of the need to carry out that systematic generation from a single principle that Kant himself had called for but had failed to provide." Maimon also levels 92. Kant (1900- ), Krv, A64-65/B88-89. 93. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A67/B92. 94. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A80/B106. 95. Criticism of the Metaphysical Deduction is one aspect of Reinhold's general argument that Kant has arrived at correct results but has done so inductively rather than deductively-hence in a way that cannot compel conviction. See, for example, Reinhold (1791), UF, 118-121: "[General

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against Kant the very accusation that Kant levels against Aristotle'sdoctrine of categories: that the list is arrived at rhapsodically and not systematically.?" Since Klaus Reich's classic 1932 study, however, the Metaphysical Deduction has been taken far more seriously by interpreters of Kant.?" It is now clear-thanks in large part to transcripts of logic lectures that were not previously available-that Kant does not merely appropriate, for the sake of transcendental logic, the forms of judgment made available in the now outmoded general logic of his times. Instead, he rethinks both general and transcendental logic on the basis of his far-reaching reconception of judgment as the exemplary act of a finite understanding. Still, the first principle of the Metaphysical Deduction is surely not an absolute first principle in the way that Derivation Monism requires. Rather than starting from an absolute first principle-some fourth alternative that enables one to escape from the Agrippan tnlemrna-c-the Metaphysical Deduction surely begins from the purely fonnal principle of the transcendental unity of apperception, which expresses the finite character of a subject whose thought remains empty without data given to its receptive faculty. So it seems implausible that the Metaphysical Deduction could help respond to Agrippan skepticism by invoking an absolute ground. It is the faculty of reason that is concerned with absolute grounding. Could there be a modal distinction between reason and understanding, in which reason has primacy? This hope is dashed by the Critique of Pure Reason, where it seems, on the contrary, that reason depends for its intelligibility on understanding, but not vice versa, and even that the forms of reason are derivable from the forms of understanding. logic) has hitherto lacked a recognized first principle (and has usurped it instead from metaphysics).... It can offer no certainty, therefore. as to whether [its principles] are complete in number, or how they rank-or whether they are of the same order or stand subordinated each to another. . And even if we already possessed logic in a genuinely systematic form, still we would look in vain for the completely determined concept of thought in it. This is the concept from which it must proceed but which, precisely for' this reason, it cannot provide.... In this situation of the logic, it is not difficult to understand that there was little, if anything at all, that Kant could safely take over from the general logic into his Transcendental Logic" 96. The systematic derivation of forms of transcendental logic or categories, and the derivation therefrom of the fonns of general logic, is Mannon's project in his Lngik and his Die Kathegorien des Artstotdes (Aristotle's Categories), both published in 1794. For his attitude to Kant's Metaphysical Deduction, see, for example, Maimon (2000a), Lngik, 5: "Logic.. so far from being the premise of transcendental philosophy, must have it as its premise instead," 97. Reich (1992). Of particular importance in this regard are Wolff (1995), Longucnesse (1998), and Brandt (2000). See also Allison (2004), 133156.

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For, "we must ... note that it is only from the understanding that pure and transcendental concepts can arise, that reason really cannot generate any concept at all, but can at most only free a concept of the understanding from the unavoidable limitations of a possible experience, and thus seek to extend it beyond the boundaries of the empirical, though still in connection with it."98 Thus the ideas of reason are derivable from the categories of the understanding. To be sure, Kant says that, "the law of reason to seek unity is necessary, since without it we would have no reason, and without that, no coherent use of the understanding, and, lacking that, no sufficient mark of empirical truth."? But this suggests only that the use of the understanding would be seriously deficient without guidance by reason, not that, without reason, one could possess no understanding at all. From this point of view, could any sense be made of the notion that Kant still regards natural grounding, which is subject to the Agrippan tri- lemma, as derivative from the supernatural grounding that escapes it, with which reason is concerned? It seems that the most one could say is that Kant's doctrine of the highest good commits him to the view that we have reason to hope that progress is occurring towards a condition in which, with divine assistance, the natural order is in harmony with the moral order, and happiness is distributed in accordance with virtue.'?" In such a condition, the extent to which moral agents meet reason's demands for absolute grounding will determine the natural events which we can know in a way that does not allow for absolute grounding. But the determination is not direct: it is a co-variance established by God. Still this might suffice for a version of Derivability Monism, since we could grasp the construetibihty of the highest good-we could see why, given a certain degree of virtue, a certain degree of happiness should be distributed to an agentalthough we could never grasp the actual connection, which would be accessible only to God. Still the harmony is a goal towards which we can rationally hope to progress. It is hard to see how a teleological version of Derivability Monism could provide a response to Agrippan skepticism about empirical knowledge prior to the attainment of the goaL We must not forget, however, that Kant's thinking does not remain static after 1781. As Eckart Forster has pointed out, one significant shift is a reconception of the relationship between understanding and reason. Thus, 98. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A408--409/B435~36. 99. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A6511B679. 100. For an account of this doctrine in Kant's three critiques, see Guyer (2000).

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in the Opus poslumum, Kant writes, "Reason precedes, with the projection of its forms" and "Ideas precede appearances in space and tirne.t"?' Of course, this is very late evidence from a highly problematic source. Nevertheless, there is evidence, I believe, that Kant is taking steps towards this reconception much earlier than the bulk of his work on the Opus postumum. This evidence suggests the possibility of a reworking of the Metaphysical Deduction which, however, Kant himself did not carry out. The evidence I have in mind comes from one of Kant's responses to the Spinozism controversy that gave rise to German idealism-in particular, from Kant's 1786 response to Moses Mendelssohn's last word on behalf of the pre-Kantian enlightenment: the Morgenstunden. Although Mendelssohn confesses that he has not been able to study Kant's critical philosophy, he makes a remark that, as Kant notices, challenges the meaningfulness of the distinction between empirical and transcendental reality, and thereby questions the meaningfulness of Kant's transcendental idealism: "If I tell you what a thing does or undergoes, then ask no further what it is! If I tell you what sort of concept you have to form of a thing, then the further question, what that thing is in itself [an sich selbstl has no more sense."102 In response, Kant first makes what should by now be a familiar point. He notes that, as demonstrated in his Metaphysical Principles oj Natural Science, we can know only irreducibly relational determinations within the empirical world, and we cannot know anything inner. Then Kant makes some surprising comments on proper procedure in metaphysics: Consider only how you form the concept of God as Highest Intelligence. You think pure, true reality in Him, i.e., something that is not merely opposed to negations (as one commonly maintains), but rather and pre- . eminently [something that is opposed to] the realities in appearance (realitas phaenomenon), to all those that must be given to us through the senses and for just that reason called reaiuas apparens (albeit not in an entirely appropriate expression). If one now diminishes all these realities (understanding, will, blessedness, power, etc.) with respect to degree, then they remain ever the same [realities] with respect to manner (quality), [and] 101. Kant (1900- ),21: 15 and 106, cited by Forster (2000), 150. 102. Moses Mendelssohn, Morgenstunden (Morning Hours) in Mendelssohn (1974), 1ll/2, 60, This passage seems to undermine the suggestion made by Warren (2001), 45, that Mendelssohn would reject the idea that a concept of the thing in itself could be formed on the sole basis of knowledge of relations, and that Mendelssohn would think that such knowledge raises a legitimate question about what this thing is in itself.

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then you have properties of things in themselves, which you can also apply to other things besides God. You can think no other [properties of things in themselves], everything else is only reality in appearance (property of a thing as object of the senses), whereby you never think a thing as it is in itself. To be sure, it seems odd that we can determine our concepts of things in themselves appropriately only insofar as we first lead back {reduciren] all reality to the concept of God and that we should apply it to other things as things in themselves only insofar as it finds its place within [that concept], That alone is properly the means ofseparation of everything sensible and of appearance from that which can be considered through the understanding as appropriate to things in themselves.103 Kant's general point is clear. It makes sense to distinguish empirical reality from transcendental reality, and so it makes sense to say, for example, that we can know only appearances but not things in themselves. For empirical reality is irreducibly relational and hence subject to the Agrippan trilemma. In contrast, reason demands that we think things in themselves as escaping the trilemma by providing a nonrelational ground for relational properties. When one contrasts empirical reality as it is known in Newtonian physics with transcendental reality as it is positively conceived in metaphysicsthat is, with nournena in the positive sense that is hypothetically necessary-then it is unquestionable that one is drawing a meaningful distinction. Indeed, it is clear that things in themselves can never be known through the study of empirical objects, and that, even if one has complete knowledge of "what a thing does or undergoes," there will still be a meaningful question about what it is in itself. For my purposes, however, what is important is Kant's point that the absolutely infinite-Gad-must not be conceived through a negation of the limits of finite substances. Rather, the reality of finite things in themselves-that is, in Kant's terminology, transcendental reality-must be conceived through a limitation of the reality pertaining to or grounded in the absolutely infinite. Before Kant, Descartes and Newton also insist that the finite must be viewed as a negation of the infinite, not vice versa, and, after Kant, this insight is also central to the thinking of Levinas.'?" But is it not surprising 103. Kant (1900- ), BJPM. 8:, 154. 104. See Descartes (1964-1976), 7: 45-46: "And 1must not think that, just as my conceptions of rest and darkness are arrived, at by negating movement and light, so my perception of the infinite is arrived at not hy means of a true idea but merely by negating the finite. On the contrary,

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to hear Kant make this metaphysical point? Is it not doubly surprising to hear him say that this alone is the key to the separation of the sensible from the intelligible, a separation whose significance for the critical project could hardly be overestimated? According to the Critique ofPure Reason, "our concepts of things in themselves" are ultimately derived from the a priori structure of the understanding. In the negative sense, our indeterminate concept of things in themselves is an abstract concept of a thing in general or a transcendental object, In the positive sense, our concepts of things. in themselves are categories that are extended to the unconditioned. But according to this 1786 text, "our concepts of things in themselves"-presumably of things in themselves in the positive sense-are derived from the idea of God, hence from an idea of reason. Clearly, a shift in Kant's thinking has occurred. And this shift creates a new possibility: the possibility of a Metaphysical Deduction of the categories whose first principle is not the concept of a finite, discursive understanding, but rather the idea of God as ens realissimum. But this is the possibility of Derivation Monism. I am not suggesting that the reconceived Metaphysical Deduction, suggested by Kant's 1786 response to Mendelssohn, is to be found within the Critique of Pure Reason. There Kant thinks of the principle of the transcendental unity of apperception, expressive of the discursive character of finite understanding, as the first principle of the Metaphysical Deduction. Indeed, he seems to think that the demand for an omnitudo realitatis grounded in the ens realissimum is itself a dialectical illusion. Thus he writes: I clearly understand that there is more reality in an infinite substance than there is in a finite one, and hence that my perception of the infinite, that is God, is in some way prior to the perception of the finite, that is, myself. For how could I understand that I doubted or desired-that is, lacked something-and that I was not wholly perfect, unless there were in me some idea of a more perfect being which enabled me to recognize my own defects by comparison?" See also Newton, «De gravitanone et aequipondio Iluidorum," in Newton (2004), 24: "Should one say further that we do not understand what an infinite being is, save by negating the limitations of a finite being, and that this is a negative and faulty conception, I deny this. For the limit or boundary is the restriction or negation of greater reality or existence in the limited being, and the less we conceive any being to be constrained by limits, the more we observe something to be attributed to it, that is, the more positively we conceive it. And thus by negating all limits the conception becomes maximally positive. 'End' [finis] is a word negative with respect to perception, and thus 'infinity,' since it is the negation of a negation (that is, of ends), will be a word maximally positive with respect to our perception and understanding, though it seems grammatically uegative."

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Now in fact no other objects except those of sense can be given to us, and they can be given nowhere except in the context of a possible experience; consequently, nothing is an object for us unless it presupposes the sum total of all empirical reality as condition of its possibility. In accordance with a natural illusion, we regard as a principle that must hold of all things in general that which properly holds only of those which are given as objects of our senses.... That we subsequently hypostatize this idea of the sum total of all reality, however, comes about because we dialectically transform the distributive unity of the use of the understanding in experience into the collective unity of a whole of experience; and from this whole of appearance we think up an individual thing containing in itself all empirical reality, which thenby means of the transcendental subreption we have already thought-is confused with the concept of a thing that stands at the summit of the possibility of all things, providing the real conditions for their thoroughgoing determination. ros Here Kant suggests that the idea of an omnitudo realitatis is illicitly formed from the legitimate idea of "the sum total of empirical reality." This latter sum-total is a distributive unity. That is to say, the whole of possible experience is a unity in virtue of the categorial principles that make any given empirical object possible, but this unity is merely distributive because the principles enable the anticipation only of the form of possible experience, while the matter of possible experience must be given and cannot be anticipated a priori. lOG In contrast, the omnitudo reoluaus, as a sum-total of transcendental reality, would be a collective unity. That is to say, it would be a unity in virtue of principles that make possible the anticipation not only of the form but also of the matter of cognition. One cannot legitimately derive the idea of a collective unity from that of a distributive unity. In a similar vein, Kant wrote the following in his own copy of the A-edition of the Critique, at A266, when he is discussing the distinction between form and matter: "The thoroughgoing determination as principle is grounded on the unity of consciousness." On this picture, we abstract from the specific finite intelligibility of objects to humans, thereby forming an indeterminate concept of a thing in general, whose intelligibility does not depend 105. Kant (J 900- ), KrV,A582-583/B660-661. 106. See Kant (1900- ), Prol, 4: 327-328, and the illuminating discussion in Friedman (l992a),300-303

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on any condition peculiar to human knowers. However, this yields at most an idea of a noumenon in the negative sense. When we subsequently imagine the realization of that idea by a completely determinate thing in itself-s-a noumenon in the positive sense-we are falling prey to a dialectical illusion. It is not clear, however, even within the Critique of Pure Reason, why Kant should take this dim view of the idea of an omnitudo realitatis grounded in an ens realissimum. Since it does not appear to lead to any antinomy, why should he not hold, rather, that such an idea expresses a synthetic a priori demand of reason, which, however, cannot he assumed to be actualized? Then falling prey to the dialectical illusion would consist, not in reason's demand, but rather in the thought that reason's demand must be met by actuality.'?" Contemporaneous readers are justifiably confused about Kant's attitude towards a way of thinking about God that is central to Kant's thinking as late as the Inaugural Dissertation of 1770. 108 107. Indeed, it can be argued that this would he more consistent with Kant's general account of transcendental illusion. Ironically, this is suggested by Allison's recent attempt to give a sym~ pathetic reading of the relevant texts. Allison wants to follow Grier (2001), who rightly insists on the distinction between dialectical illusion, which is natural and unavoidable, and metaphysical error, which presupposes dialectical illusion but which may be avoided by abandoning transcendental realism for transcendental idealism. But on Allison's own account, the first step in the formation of the ideal is the dialectical substitution of the collective unity of reason for the distributive unity of the understanding, and this step already involves the erroneous assumption of transcendental realism. So in rational theology there is no illusion without error, contrary to Alhson's-i-and, I think, Kant's-v-intention. See Allison (2004), 408. Kant's own account of transcendental illusion requires, then, that the substitution claim be dropped and that the ideal be ascribed a non dialectical origin in reason. This is, of course, just the move that I am suggesting Kant takes later. 108. Kant's more negative assessment may have been fairly short-lived. He considers the argument uncritically in numerous Reflexionen from the 1770s. See, for example, R4244-4249, R4253, R4255, R4262 , R4255 , R4569-4570, R4729, R5270-5274, R5500, R5502-'5505, R5522. According to Guyer and Wood, in their edition of Kant's Critique (l998a), 746,n.87, no Reflexionen before the publication of A take a negative attitude towards the idea. See, however, R62486256, R6290, R6293, R6298, for negative remarks after publication. For an apparently positive postpublicaticn appraisal, expressing the attitude I suggest Kant could have taken, see R6289 , from c. 1783-1784: "The ensrealissimum must be given prior to any possibility ... not as object, but as the mere form of reason, to think the difference of any possible thing in its thoroughgoing determination, thus as an idea which is (subjectively) actual before something is thought as possible." See Longuenesse (1998), 155, n.35. Kant's lectures on theology also express a positive attitude towards the argument, not as an existence-proof, but "as a necessary transcendental hypothesis" with subjective necessity. He emphasizes that the proof establishes the logical, but not the real possibility, let alone the actuality of God. See Kant (1900- ), VpR, 28: 1004-1006, 10131047, 1036£f.

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By 1786, Kant has attained a more appreciative view of the idea of an

omnitudo realitatis grounded in an ens realissimum-without returning to his pre-critical view that it can serve as the only possible ground for proof of the existence of God. For in his more famous response to the pantheism controversy, "What does it mean to orient oneself in thinking?" he writes: Since reason needs to presuppose reality as given for the possibility of all things, and considers the differences between things only as limitations arising through the negations attaching to them, it sees itself necessitated to take as a ground one single possibility, namely that of an unlimited being, to consider it as original and all others as derived. Since also the thoroughgoing possibility of every thing must be encountered within existence as a whole-or at least since this is the only way in which the principle of thoroughgoing determination ~akes it possible for our reason to distinguish between the possible and the actual-we find a subjective ground of necessity, i.e., a need in our reason itself to take the existence of a most real (highest) being as the ground of all possibility.t'" Here Kant acknowledges this line of reasoning as "a need in our reason itself." As one would expect, he criticizes the thought that this need constitutes a demonstration of the existence of God-a thought underlying, he says, all of Mendelssohn's proofs in Morgenstunden-but he does not say here, as he does in the first Critique, that the line of reasoning is itself entangled in dialectical illusion. His reservation is, rather, that "we must not give out what is in fact only a necessary presupposition as if it were a

free insight." The suggestion is that the reconceived Metaphysical Deduction should be seen as a rethinking whose possibility is first made clear by post-1781 developments in Kant's thinking. no Such a rethinking would not be without parallel, for the insight one acquires in the Transcendental Analytic into the determination of sensibility by the understanding enables a rethinking of the Transcendental Aesthetic.v'! Indeed, the general possibility of such rethinkings is illuminated by what has been said about the modal 109. Kant (1900- ), WHO, 8: 138n. 110. 1 leave open here the details of the developmental story, As is well-known, Kant left the Dialecticalmost entirely unrevised in 1786-1787, so it is no objection to my claim that Kant did not revise the Transcendental Ideal for the B edition. 111. See, for example, Longuenesse (1998),213: "The goal of the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories is 'fully attained' only when it leads to a rereading of the Transcendental Aesthetic." See also 298-303.

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character of the distinction between the faculties. :SUPP9se there are two modally distinct faculties, each with a really distinct use. If one examines the dependent faculty first, in light of its really distinct use, then one may be said to examine it as if it were a really distinct faculty. When, however, it is subsequently established that the dependent faculty is unintelligible without reference to the faculty on which it is dependent, then one's previously attained view of the lower faculty will have to be rethought in light of one's new insight. Since, as I have argued, there are modal distinctions both between the faculties of specifically human sensibility and understanding, and between understanding and reason, it should be clear why, in both cases, the examination of the latter faculty enables a deeper insight into the former. What would a Metaphysical Deduction from the idea of God be like? As far as I know, Kant never attempts to carry it out. However, without attempting a complete reconstruction, we can see what the shape of the derivation would be if we pay attention to connections between three regions of the Critique of Pure Reason: the Metaphysical Deduction, the Transcendental Ideal, and the Amphiboly. There is an implicit connection, made explicit in several Reflexionen, between the Metaphysical Deduction, in which the categories are derived, and the Transcendental Ideal, in which the idea of God is derived.P" This connection can be brought out through consideration of Kant's argument for the distinction between negative judgment and infinite judgment within transcendental logic. Kant agrees with Georg Friedrich Meier, whose book provides the basis for Kant's lectures on logic, that there is no distinction to be made, within general logic, between an affirmative judgment and an infinite judgment such as "the soul is non-mortal," in which the predicate involves a negation, but the copula is not negated, as it is in a negative judgment such as "the soul is not mortal.t'P? For "General logic abstracts from all content of the . predicate (even if it is negative), and considers only whether it is attributed to the subject or opposed to it."1l4 That is, general logic is concerned only with the forms of the synthesis of subject-concepts and predicate-concepts,

112. See Longuenesse (1998),295-296, who cites R3063, perhaps composed in 1776-1778. 113. Meier, Auszug au, der Vemunftlehre (ExtraLt from the Doctrine of Reason) (Halle, 1752), #294, reprinted in Kant (1900- ), 16: 635. 114. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A721B97.

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and with the combinations of those forms in syllogisms, without paying any attention whatsoever to the content of the concepts involved, in particular to whether those concepts are real--that is, capable of rendering objects intelligible. However, Kant argues, transcendental logic must distinguish infinite from affirmative judgments. For transcendental logic is concerned with the forms of synthesis of subject-concepts and predicateconcepts into judgments insofar as the resulting judgments are capable of rendering objects intelligible. So transcendental logic must pay attention to the contents of concepts, to their reality. And the object-intelligibility achieved through infinite judgments differs from the object-intelligibility achieved through affirmative judgments. In an affirmative judgment, such as "the soul is simple," the sphere of the subject-concept is included in the definite sphere of the predicate-concept, and the soul is posited within a definite region of the space of real possibilities or possible entities. Thus, we might say, the soul is rendered definitely intelligible. But this is not the kind of intelligibility achieved through an infinite judgment such as "the soul is non-mortal"; Now by means of the proposition "the soul is non-mortal" I have certainly made an actual affirmation as far as logical form is concerned, for I have placed the soul within the unlimited domain of undying beings. Now since that which is mortal contains one part of the whole domain of possible beings, but that which is undying the other, nothing is said by my proposition but that the soul is one of the infinite multitude of things that remain if I take away everything that is mortal. But the infinite sphere of the possible.is thereby limited only to the extent that that which is mortal is separated from it, and the soul is placed in the remaining space of its domain. But even with this exception this space still remains infinite, and more parts could be taken away from it without the concept of the soul growing in the least and being affirmatively determined.P" Through an infinite judgment, we might say, a real possibility is rendered indefinitely intelligible. For it is posited within what Kant thinks of as the space of real possibilities. But it is posited outside a definite region of that space, in an indefinitely large area. In Kant's logical terminology, the sphere of the subject-concept is included in the infinite sphere external to that of the concept whose negation constitutes the predicate-concept. Now, when Kant speaks of the exhaustive division of "the whole exten115. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A721B97.

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sian of possible beings" into the mortal and the non-mortal, he is implicitly invoking what, in the Transcendental Ideal, he calls the principle of thoroughgoing determination,116 and he makes this connection explicit in R3063. As Kant puts it in the Critique: Every thing, however, as to its possibility ... stands under the principle of thoroughgoing determination; according to which, among all possible predicates of things, insofar as they are compared with their opposites, . one must apply to it. This does not rest merely on the principle of contradiction, for besides considering every thing in relation to two contradictorily conflicting predicates, it considers every thing further in relation to the whole of possibility, as the sum total of all predicates of things in general; and by presupposing that as a condition a priori, it represents every thing as deriving its own possibility from the share it has in that whole of possibility. The principle of thoroughgoing determination thus deals with the content and not merely the logical form. It is the principle of the synthesis of all predicates which are to make up the complete concept of a thing, and not merely of the analytical representation, through one of two opposed predicates, and it contains a transcendental presupposition, namely that of the material of allpossibility, which is supposed to contain a priori the data for the particular possibility of every thing.117 Clearly, Kant is concerned here, once again, with the difference between general and transcendental logic. There are two significant differences between the transcendental principle of thoroughgoing determination and the general logical principle of contradiction. First, the transcendental principle is concerned with real, not merely logical, possibilities. It concerns "every thing . . . as to its possibility." Thus the opposing predicates to which it applies must express reality or intelligibility of some being. Kant illustrates this point by means of a familiar example taken from Meier: he uses the expression "non-mortal" to draw a distinction between a (general) log5cal negation of a copula and the transcendental negation of a concept.P" 116. On this principle, see Wood (1978), 42-44, and Friedman (1992a), 300-310. 117. Kant (1900~ ), KrV,A572-573/B600-601. 118. However, the Transcendental Ideal seems to mark a different-perhaps earlier-line of thought than the Metaphysical Deduction. First, Kant distinguishes between the transcendental and the logical, and does not seem to distinguish between two types of logic, the transcendental and the general. Second, although Kant distinguishes negation of the copula from negation of the predicate-concept, he does not seem to regard the latter as indicating infinite judgment, but as signifying"a mere lack."

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However, here he mentions only negative judgments, in which the subjectconcept is negated because it does not express "reality (thinghood)," but rather "non-being in itself ... a mere lack ... the removal of every thing." He does not mention infinite judgments, in which the predicate-concept is negated. Second, unlike the principle of contradiction, the principle of thoroughgoing determination has "a transcendental presupposition": "the sum-total oj all possibility" or "the collective possibility ... the allness (universitas) or the sum total of all possible predicates." The idea here is that things are thoroughly determined, not merely with respect to any given pair of opposed predicates-that is, to any pair of opposed predicates between which we have the opportunity to decide, say in virtue of some experience-but rather with respect to every possible pair of opposed predicates. We find here, in effect, another expression of the Leibnizian Principle of Sufficient Reason. For the idea is that everything is determined, as it were, in advance, with respect to every possible pair of opposed predicates, by its essence or absolutely intrinsic properties, thus by its transcendentally real possibility. That is to say, there is an absolute and unconditioned reason why every possible thing bas every predicate that is possible for it. To grasp this absolute and unconditioned reason would be, as Kant says in Leibnizian language, to grasp "the complete concept of a thing."1l9 According to this conception of hypothetical necessity, every possible thing is individuated and so distinguished from every other possible thing, in virtue of its concept alone. Thus there is a conceptual space within which every possible thing has its own determinate location. We must not forget that the idea of such a conceptual space is an expression of reason's demand for an escape from the Agrippan trilemma and does not follow analytically from the mere concept of a thing. There is no contradiction in the thought that pOSSible things are not completely determined, or that things are individuated from one another only when they are actual. This is exactly the

119. Thus the complete concept of an individual thing is not, as one might have thought, equivalent to a list of all the predicates of that thing, but is rather composed of those predicates of the thing that explain the pertinence to it of all other pertinent predicates. This has been argued by Cover and O'Leary-Hawthorne (1999). See, for example, 172-173: "Leibniz understands individual concepts as standing in an explanatory relation to the predicates of an individual, as presumably no list or conjunction stands to its members." An adequate interpretation of Leibniz' account of truth, as the wn1aillmentof the predicate-concept in the subject-concept, must construe the containment relation as explanatory, not as merely deductive.

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case, Kant argues, with empirical reality. Objects of possible experience are in principle not completely determinable in advance via absolutely intrinsic properties, for those properties can never be given through our senses, whose form is space and time. Objects that are actually given through the senses are individuated, not through their concepts alone but through their relationship to other objects in space and time, and indeed to the spatial framework enduring in time. As Kant explains in the Amphiboly, Leibniz's principle of the identity of indtscemibles is true of the objects of pure understanding but not of the objects of possible experience: If an object is presented to us several times, but always with the same inner determinations (qualltas et quanutas), then it is always exactly the same if it counts as an object of pure understanding, not many but only one thing (numerica identita~); but if it is appearance, then the issue is not the comparison of concepts, but rather, however identical everything may be in regard to that, the difference of the places of these appearances at the same time is still an adequate ground for the numerical difference of the object (of the senses) itself. Thus, in the case of two drops of water one can completely abstract from all inner difference (of quality arid quantity), and it is enough that they be intuited in different places at the same time in order for them to be held to be numerically different.P" Empirically, real objects can differ only numerically, in virtue of their different relations to the irreducibly relational frameworks of space and time, without any determining conceptual difference, thus without any absolute reason appealing to the essences of the objects in question. That is one manifestation of the vulnerability of empirical reality, considered on its own, to Agrippan skepticism. Now, a sum-total of all possibility cannot subsist on its own without some actual ground, any more than a single possibility can. So reason demands an actual ground in what may be called a most real being (ens realissimum) or an original being (ens originarium) or the being of all beings (ens entium). This being may be identified as God: Now if we pursue this idea of ours so far as to hypostatize it, then we will be able to determine the original being through the mere concept of the highest reality as a being that is singular, simple, all-sufficient,eternal, . etc., in a word, we will be able to determine it in its unconditioned com-

120. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A263-264/B319320.

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.._-~ ..~~-

pleteness through all predications. The concept ofsuch a being is that of God thought of in a transcendentalsense, and thus the ideal ofpure reason is the object of a transcendental theology.l21 In the Critique, Kant does not explore this determination in detail, but it is explicated elsewhere as central to his pre-critical thinking. For my purposes, I will summarize the idea in the terms Kant used in his 1786 response to Mendelssohn: we may ascribe to God all and only those absolutely intrinsic properties that are absolutely infinite, so that every real predicate of every possible finite thing in itself is either the limitation of a divine predicate or the consequence of such a limitation. Thus it is not only that the ascription of every possible real predicate, rather than its opposite, is grounded in the absolutely intrinsic properties of some transcendentally possible thing. These absolutely intrinsic properties-that is to say, the transcendental possibilities of things, or the concepts of things in themselves-are in turn grounded in the idea of God. We are now in a position to reverse direction and to reconceive the Metaphysical Deduction as a derivation from an absolute first principle. One would begin with the idea of God as ens realissimum, as the absolutely infinite ground of the omnuudo realitas. To the ens realissimum must be ascribed the maximal realities-that is, those intrinsic properties, first, that involve no negation whatsoever and thus survive what Kant calls the via negationis, and, second, that are raised to an infinite degree in what he calls the via eminentiae. 122 By now limiting these absolutely infinite real properties that have been ascribed to God, one derives all possible transcendentally real properties of finite things. This limitation would in principle yield complete concepts of possible things in themselves. At this stage, however, a second limitation is required. For the complete concepts of things could only be grasped by an infinite intellect, which Kant thinks may be ascribed to God. But we have only finite intellect-that is to say, a discursive understanding, whose spontaneity alone can supply only empty forms. Thus we are dependent on something other than our own spontaneity-on the capacity to receive what is given to us-for the matter of our cognition, whereas God is the ground of both form and matter. This second limitation would enable the derivation of both general and transcendentallogic. 121. Kant (1900- ), KrV. A580/B608. In Kant (1900- ), VpR, 2$: 1022.

j

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The resulting basic concepts of transcendental logto--the pure categories-might be called incomplete concepts of things in themselves. These concepts alone do not suffice to individuate every possible thing, or to determine, with respect to every possible thing, the ascription of one of each possible pair of opposed real predicates. As so derived, "our concepts of things in themselves" are not fully determinate. Consequently', the categoriesare Janus-faced. We may use them to think things in themselvesthat is, we may use them as incomplete versions of the concepts of things that are thoroughgoingly determined, of infinitely intelligible things that are individuated merely by their locations in the conceptual space of all transcendentally real possibilities. When we use categories in this way, our thoughts are empty forms through which we cannot determine and know any objects. But we consider this emptiness as manifesting our finitude, as expressing our inability to provide the matter supplied by God for His own cognition. Alternatively, we may use our pure categories, which are not fully determinate, to think possible things that are notfully determinate and that are individuated only insofar as they are actualized. When we use categories in this way, our thoughts are empty forms through which we can determine and know objects, provided that the matter for our cognition is provided through receptivity. Thus, categories may be used in two ways: either to think but not to determine or know things in themselves, or to think and possibly to determine and to know appearances. Returning to the scholastic terminology of the previous section, it now seems that the distinction between the faculties of understanding and reason is modal: reason is intelligible without reference to (finite, discursive) understanding, but understanding is unintelligible without reference to reason. Now, it is essential to note that to undertake this reconceived Metaphysical Deduction is not to return to Leibnizian Derivability Monism. There are three crucial differences, both made possible by Kant's doctrine of the faculties. First, Kant's doctrine is more modest because, according to the reconceived Metaphysical Deduction, the derivation is merely partial. The most one could hope to derive would be the general concept of a manifold of matter given for cognition, not the specific forms in which matter can be given to us human beings. So the intelligible does not determine-does not provide sufficient reason for-the sensible, as it must in Leibniz'sview. Thus, for example, it remains an entirely open question at this stage

.,...

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whether those forms constitute an irreducibly relational frameworkhence, whether what 'is given by means of those forms could manifest things as they are in themselves, albeit incompletely. There is no direct argument from the discursivity of the human understanding to the transcendental idealist thesis that we cannot have any theoretical knowledge whatsoever of things in themselves. An argument for this thesis would require additional premises about the forms of specifically human sensibility. Second, it should be noted that, nevertheless, Kant's doctrine L143n

Here, as elsewhere, Leibuiz fell into Spinozism whenever he allowed himself to be logical; in his published works, accordingly, he took care to be illogical. -Russell (I900, 1937), Preface to the Second Edition, vii

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2.1 A version of monism to which German idealists are committed is incompatible with one of Kant's fundamental commitments. I will call it Holistic Monism, which is distinct from the Derivation Monism discussed in Chapter 1. Derivation Monism is the requirement that, in an adequate philosophical system, the a priori conditions of experience must be somehow derived from a single, absolute first principle. Holistic Monism may be divided into two requirements, The Holistic requirement is that, in an adequate philosophical system, empirical items must be such that all their properties are determinable only within the context of a totality composed of other items and their properties.' The Monistic requirement is that, in an adequate philosophical system, the absolute first principle must be immanent within the aforementioned totality, as its principle of unity." The two requirements together enrail, first, that the absolute first principle both necessitates its derivatives and is impossible without them and, second, /

1. Schelling (1856--1861), VI, UMFP: 107, expresses the commitment to Holism in this sense by making an astute point about the difference between Kant's -table of the categories and the German idealist table developed by Fichte and by Schelling himself: "If one looks closely at Kant's table of these forms, then indeed one finds that, instead of placing the original form as the principle of the other forms, Kant placed it among others, as one on a par with them. On more careful investigation one finds not only that the forms of relation are the foundation of all others but also that they are really identical with the original form (the analytic, the synthetic, and the two combined}." Kant's inclusion of the relational categories of causality and community is already controversial, since it is legitimate only on the assumption that things in themselves can be thought as interacting causally and even as in causal community-an assumption for which he had argued, . against Leibnizian opposition, in his pre-critical writings. But the German idealists go still further and make the relational categories-substantiality, causality, and community-into the foundational categories from which to derive the rest. The relevant categorial principles are equivalent to the first three principles of Fichte's 1794 Foundations: "1posit myself as self-positing," "I posit the not-I," and "I posit the divisible not-I in opposition to the divisible I." Thus not only is it possible, as for Kant, to think community through the categories, but it is impossible, for the German idealists, to think any determinate thing that is not in community. Intrinsic properties are therefore unthinkable. 2. Commitment to Monism in this sense may be more obvious in the case of Schelling and Hegel, who explicitly acknowledge their debts to Spinoza, than in the case of Fichte. One expression of Fichte's commitment may be seen in a central feature of his methodology, which I will discuss further in Chapter 5. It.is the idea that the absolute first principle'fs first insofar as it is empty on its own and cannot be concretely realized unless further conditions are satisfied. Although the first principle cannot be realized without these conditions, the conditions are nevertheless derivative from the principle because they can be derived in a deduction that begins with the principle, whereas the principle cannot he derived in a deduction that begins with its conditions.

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that, between the principle and its derivatives, there can be no real distinctions. Now this view conflicts with what may be called Monadic Individualism: the thesis that properties can be instantiated only if they are horne by individuals, which possess some intrinsic properties. This thesis is to be distinguished from the monadological view that properties must be borne byindividuals which have only intrinsic properties. Kant is committed to Monadic Individualism on two levels. First, as we have seen, even in the critical period, Kant maintains that, supposing the intelligibility of the world, things in themselves must be individuals in the way Monadic Individualism requires. This is Kant's critical inheritance of .~he Leibnizian notion of hypothetical necessity. Turning from theoretical to practical philosophy, we find, second, that, in Kant's view, the self-conception required for moral action is a conception of myself as an individual with some intrinsic properties-notably, a will that is capable of autonomy. This parting of the ways-which, as we shall see, is far more complex than I have so far suggested-comes about through the remarkable influence of the Jacobi-Mendelssohn controversy and, more specifically, through the unintended success of Jacobi's presentation of Spinozism in 1785. Jacobi's goal may be to discredit the enlightenment by showing that it leads inexorably to Spinozism and other horrible consequences, as Lessing, the German enlightenment's most farsighted thinker, had realized. Butjacobi's effect is to convince an entire generation that Spinoza may no longer be treated as a "dead dog," but should instead be regarded as the most rigorous of all the great figures in the history of philosophy. Of course, not everyone whom Jacobi has convinced of Spinoza's greatness also thinks that one should be a Spinozist. Indeed, Reinhold-the first German idealist-hrought Kant's Critique of Pure Reason to the attention of a large audience for the first time when, in his Letters on the Kantian Philosophy, he presented the doctrine of moral religion in the Critique as the only possible alternative to Spinozism. Although the Critique had been written by Kant and read by jacobi before the Spinozism controversy, its fate isto be read by many-including those who will soon be German idealistsin the new context inaugurated by Jacobi, a context significantly different from that in which the Critique had been written. jacobi may be seen as transforming the philosophical context in two ways. First, he establishes Spinozism, which had been a negligible position when Kant wrote the Critique, as the principal pre-Kant ian option for re-

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solving the problems discussed in the last chapter: the Agrippan trilemma, the Leibnizian problem, and the Newtonian/Humean problem, to all of which Kantian dualism may be seen as responding. Second, he institutes a new way of seeing those problems: as part of a general problematic of the nihilism of philosophy, which I will discuss in the next chapter. This chapter will deal with Jacobi's remarkable success in putting Spinozism on the map of viable philosophical positions. Thanks to Jacobi, by the time the German idealists write their major works, they have become convinced that any viable philosophical position must be committed to Holistic Monism, one of Spinozism's distinctive features. Indeed, it has become so self-evident to them that they offer little or no argument on its behalf. In this chapter, I will reconstruct the motivation for Holistic Monism by focusing on two stages in the reception of the first Critique. At the first stage, readers of the Critique, under Jacobi's influence, think that Kant himself either is, should, or at least could be a Spinozist committed to Holistic Monism. At the second stage, Kant himself-if not under Jacobi's influence, then on the occasion forced upon him by Jacobi-comes to a new appreciation of Spinozism. Beginning with the Critique oj Practical Reason of 1788, Kant argues that a transcendental realist, who is developing a theoretical account of hypothetical necessity, should be, not a Leibnizian, as Kant would have said before the Spinozism controversy, but rather a Spinozist. Thus Spinozism is the greatest rival of Kant's own transcendental idealism. But the latter, Kant also argues, has decisive theoretical advantages over the former. By reconstructjng an argument that emerges from the first stage-an argument to the effect that Kant could be a Spinozist-as well as an argument that emerges from the second stage-a Jailed argument to the effect that transcendental idealism defeats Spinozism within theoretical philosophy, I hope to show why Fichte and Schelling come to think that Spinozism cannot be refuted by either Kantian or Pichtean idealism on theoretical grounds, a thesis from which they draw conclusions whose difference may be seen as representing the schism between Fichte on the one hand and Schellingand Hegel on the other.

2.2 At the beginning of the Spinozism controversy, it is far from clear whether Kant will become involved. It is even unclear on which side he would intervene if he were to participate. Thus in 1785, Kant receives numerous

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letters begging him to enter the controversy, either against lacobi or against Mendelssohn." One letter, from Christian Gottfried Schutz, editor of the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung of jena, which is just beginning to become a center for Kantianism, pleads with Kant for a clarification, whether Mr. Privy Councillor Jacobi in his book on Spinoza has not misunderstood you, when he cites your ideas about space and says they are written wholly in Spinoza's spirit. It is entirely incomprehensible how often you are misunderstood; there are people, who are actually not fools in other respects, who take you for an atheist.4 Schutz is referring to a footnote in which Jacobi cites the Critique oJPure Reason in order to explain Holistic Monism to Mendelssohn." Here is Jacobi's text, to which the foonote in question is attached: VI. Hence [i.e., as a result of the argument]acobi has just given, which I shall explore later! the finite is in the infinite, so that the sum of all finite things, equally containing within itself the whole of eternity at every moment, past and future, is one and the same as the infinite thing itself. VII. This sum is not an absurd combination of finite things, together constituting an infinite, but a whole in the strictest sense, whose parts can only be thought within it and according to it." Paragraph VI is a statement of Spinoza's monism, as Jacobi understands it. It amounts to the view that the dependence of finite things upon the infinite is such that the omnitudo realitatis is one and the same as the ens realissimum. But, as Jacobi hastens to explain in Paragraph VII, to say this is not to make the absurd claim that the aggregation 01 all finite things yields something that is infinite. Such a claim would presuppose that finite things are intelligible prior to their inclusion into the whole. Rather, in 3. Zammito (1992), 230-·237. 4. Kant (1900- ), B, 10: 430 (Letter from Christian Gottfried Schulz, February 1786). See also the letter from Johann Biester, 11 June 1786, Kant (1900- ), 10: 453-458, arguing that Jacobi has already pulled Kant into the controversy. Biesrer, editor of the Berlinische Monatsschrift, is attempting to recruit Kant for the Berlin enlightenment's defense against Jacobi. 5. tn another footnote, Jacobi makes a different assoctatlon between Spinoza and Kant that seems to have attracted less immediate attention from critics. He suggests that what Spinoza calls "absolute thought," ascribed to God, may be illuminated by consideration of Kant's transcendental apperception or "original consciousness." SeeJacobi (1998- ), 015 (1785), 1: 105, n.I. It seems certain that this association exerted an enormous influence on those who were to become German idealists. 6. Jacobi (1998), U15 (1785), 1: 95-96.

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Spinoza's view, finite things are intelligible only in: virtue of their position within the whole, which is therefore prior to its parts. In other words, finite things are limitations of.the infinite whole. To Paragraph Vll, Jacobi adds the following footnote: The following passages from Kant, which are entirely in the spirit of Spinoza, might serve for explanation: "... we can represent to ourselves only one space; and if we speak of diverse spaces, we mean thereby only parts of one and the same unique space. Secondly, these parts cannot precede the one all-embracing space, as being, as it were, constituents out of which it can be composed; on the contrary, they can be thought only as in it. Space is essentially one; the manifold in it, and therefore the general concept of spaces, depend solely on limitations ..." Critique of Pure R. [AI2S; "The infinitude of time signifies nothing more than that every determinate magnitude of time is possible only through limitations one single time that underlies it. The original representation.. time, must therefore be given as unlimited. But when an object is so given that its parts, and every quantity of it, can be determinately represented through limitation, the whole representation cannot be given through concepts, since they contain only partial representations (since in their case the partial representations come first); on the contrary, such concepts must themselves rest on immediate intuition." Critique of Pure R. [AJ32. 7 Adding yet another layer, Jacobi's footnote cites two passages from Spinoza "as accompaniment to these words of Kant.?" Jacobi does not explain these passages or their pertinence to Kant. B~t, in light of his general interpretation of Spinoza, he seems to think that the first passage shows that, just as Kant thinks of regions of space and spans of time as limitations of infini te wholes, so Spinoza thinks of what we ordinarily call things as possessing determinacy only insofar as they are limitations of a prior, infinite whole. And he seems to think that, according to the second passage, since only the infinite whole may properly be called a real being, what we ordinarily call things are "modes of thinking," which are neither beings nor "ideas of things," but "rather Nonbeings." Ultimately, Kant responds to Schutz's request, when at last he enters the

7. Jacobi (1998), ULS (1785), 1: 96, n.I. 8. He cites properties 2-5 of the intellect from Treatise on theEmendation ojthe Intellect, Spinoza (1925) 2: 39, Spinoza (2002), 29, and the paragraphs on the modes of thinking by which we imagine things, as well as the paragraph on beings of reason from the Appendix Containing Metaphysical Thoughts to Descartes' "Principles oj Philosophy: Splnoza (1925), 1: 234, Spinoza (2002), 178-179.

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controversy in 1787, with the incredulous remark that "It is hard to comprehend how the scholars just mentioned could have found support for Spinozism in the CJitique of Pure Reason,"? Before that, however, the issue is taken up by an anonymous review of Jacobi's book in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, probably written by Schutz himself: Only one case is possible: either Mr. Jacobi or his reviewer has totally misunderstood Mr. Kant's sense and opinion in the cited 'passages. Mr. Kant says: there is only one space; Spinoza: there is only one substance. Kant says: all that we call many spaces are only parts of the unique, a21encompassing space; Spinoza: everything finite is one and the same as the infinite. How both speak here in the very same spirit, how Kant can here serve as elucidation for Spinoza, we do not in the least comprehend. Mr. Kant alone is in a position to decide this contradiction;-and since it matters much to us to understand him correctly, while on the other hand vanity does not compel us to want to understand him better than anyone else, then it will not cost us any victory if Mr. Jacobi consents to an exposition, so that he himself may indict us of our misunderstanding. However, we concede that, in the passage from Spinoza, which Mr.Jacobi quotes on p, 125, where he speaks of the concept of quantity, the thought that representations of line, surface and body do not comprehend quantity but rather only serve to delimit [it], has an affinity with Kant's thoughts about space.!" As the reviewer remarks, there is an affinity between Kant and Spinoza. For both have the notion of a whole that is prior to its parts, such that the parts are what they are as delimitations of the whole.· This kind of part! whole relationship contrasts with the kind of relation pertaining between a discursive concept and its instances. Instances of a discursive concept may be thought of as parts composing a whole Signified by the concept. As such, the parts are prior to the whole. Indeed, the passage cited by jacobi from A25 is one of Kant's arguments in the Transcendental Aesthetic for the thesis that space and time are not concepts, but rather intuitions. Thus Kant and Spinoza share the notion of a nonconceptual part/whole relation, according to which parts are individuated through their delimitation of the whole. One may even say that Kant could say of parts of space and time what Spinoza says of finite things: determination is negation.!' 9. Kant (1900- ), WHD, 8: 143n. 10. AHgemeine Litaatur-Zeitung 36, 11 February 1786, reprinted in landau (1991),272. l L See Spinoza, Ep50, to jarig jelles, 2]une 1674, in Spinoza (2002), 892: "With regard to

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Is that all the affinity amounts to? The reviewer seems to think so. After all, Kant is talking about space and Spinoza is talking about substance. Indeed, we might add, Kant is talking about appearances, whose grounding relations are subject to the Agrippan trilemma, whereas Spinoza is talking about the in itself, whose grounding relations must-as both Kant and Spinoza think-escape the trilemma. What connection could there be, then, between Kant's one space and Spinoza's one substance? Jacobi does not say. More comfortable with highly suggestive remarks than with rigorous argumentation, he chooses to back off. In response to the review, he alters the footnote only slightly, so that, in the second edition of his Spinoza book, published in 1789, the texts [rom the Critique are introduced thus: "Kant may serve to render this concept more graspable. That the Kantian philosophy is not accused of Spmozism, one need not say to any sensible person.t'" But Jacobi's suggestive remarks should not be di~missed lightly. There is more to the affinity than Jacobi's reviewer concedes. Jacobi seems to have noticed a genuine connection between the Transcendental Ideal and the Transcendental Aesthetic, between the omnitudo realitatis o[ the in itselfand the all-encompassing space and time of appearances. Kant explicitly compares the omnitudo realitatis and space, and the comparison concerns precisely the notion of the individuation of a part through the delimitation of a whole. Thus he says:."All manifoldness of things is only so many different ways of limiting the concept of the highest reality, which is their common substratum, just as all figures are possible only as different ways of limiting space."> For an infinite intellect, every possible thing would be individuated by its position within the omnitudo reaiuatis,

the statement that figure is a negation and not anything positive, it is obvious that matter in its totality, considered without limitation, can have no figure, and that figure applies only to finite and determinate bodies. For he who says that he apprehends a figure, thereby means to indicate simply this, that he apprehends a determinate thing and the manner of its determination. This determination therefore does not pertain to the thing in regard to its being; on the contrary, it is its non-being. So since figure is nothing but determination, and determination is negation, figure can be nothing other than negation, as has been said." Jacobi (1998), ULS (1785),100, cites this passage but removes the specific reference to figure. In his 1663 baccalaureate thesis, Disputatio MelaplIysica de Prtncipio lndividui, Leibniz criticizes the view that negation is the principle of insome dividuation, but. "doubts strongly whether it has anyone to defend it, except, obscure nominalist." See McCullough (1996), 34-42. 12. Jacobi (1998), ULS (I789), 1: 96, editors' note 3-4. 13. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A~78/B606.

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which would constitute something within an infinitely intelligible space of all transcendentally real possibilities. Thus, "the thoroughgoing determination of every thing [in itself] rests on the limitation of this All of reality, in that some of it is ascribed to the thing and the rest excluded from it.'?" We, however, possess only finite understanding. So we cannot in principle individuate objects in such a manner. Nevertheless, every object intelligible to us can be individuated by its career within space and/or time, thus within the single whole of possible experience. For us, then, the spatia-temporal whole of possible experience serves, we might say, as a substitute for the infinitely intelligible space that would individuate things in themselves for an infinite intellect. Kant regards space and time as relational frameworks, so that they must be understood in relation to their possible occupants, while their possible occupants must be understood in relation to them. For this reason-and also because, Kant holds, anything in space and time is ipso facto within a Newtonian community of forces with everything else in space and timeempirical objects are "nothing but relations." Consequently, they are not things in themselves because, as I argued in the previous chapter, it is hypothetically necessary that things in themselves be individuated by their intrinsic properties, which determine their positions within the omnitudo realitatis. Rather, empirical objects are individuated only by their careers within the relational frameworks of space and/or time. Consequently, Kant can agree with Holistic Monism on the negative thesis that what we ordinarily call things are not substances in the transcendental sense. But this does not make Kant a Holistic Monist. For it does not mean that Kant agrees with the positive thesis that what we ordinarily call things are modes of a single substance in the transcendental sense: a single, infinitely intelligible whole. In the passages cited by Jacobi, Kant's point is, rather, that empirical objects are possible only within a whole whose grounding relations cannot escape the Agrippan trilemma. For possible experience is a merely distributive unity, not a collective unity such as the omnitudo reaiuaus. There is no absolute ground of possible experience that plays the role of the ens realissimum. 15 Although space and time are wholes

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- - - _ .._ - - ,.. .. .._-~.~~.~.14. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A5771B605. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the connection betweenspace and the olllnitudo realitatis is emphasized in Kant's pre-critical philosophy, especially in the Inaugural Dissertation. 15. However, the ether with whose deduction Kant is concerned in the Opus Postumum is later supposed to play an analogue of that role. See Friedman (1992a), Forster (2000), and

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that fully determine individual spaces and times," they do not fully determine empirical objects. Indeed, even space and time together with the schematized categories do not fully determine empirical objects, whose particularity is always contingent. Thus, to be aware of the forms of intuition and of finite understanding-hence of the forms of possible experience-is not to be able to derive and thus to anticipate the determinate objects that will be given to us in experience. So Kant is not committed to the view that empirical objects are merely parts or delimitations of the whole of possible experience. And Kant's possible experience can be equated with Spinoza's substance, only at the cost of destroying entirely Kant's dualism between the realm of appearances, whose grounding relations are subject to the Agrippan trilemma, and the realm of the in itself, whose grounding relations escape the trilemma, It seems impossible to ascertain how much of this Jacobi intends, However, he is certainly familiar with Kant's views about the omnuudo reautaus and the ens realissimum,16 and it is possible that he intends only to suggest that Kant and Spinoza agree that negation-that is, the delimitation of a prior whole-plays an indispensable role in the individuation of empirical objects, which are therefore not transcendentally real. If so, then Jacobi's suggestion is correct, and one can see a certain affinity-to be sure, not an equation-between transcendental idealism and the negative Spinozist thesis that what we ordinarily call things are not substances.

2.3 But some post-Jacobian readers of Kant are prepared to go still further. They see an affinity between the positive Spinozist thesis that there is only one substance and Kant's view about what is transcendentally real in the intelligible world. A striking example is Hermann Andreas Pistorius-of whose reviews Kant himself takes note'"-who claims to find a "deduction of Spinozism"

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Edwards (2000). The greater analogy Kant now allows between possible experience and the omnitudo realitatis is surely connected to his heightened sense of intimacy with Spinozism. 16. In DHuG, Jacobi reports that it was with palpitations that he first read Kant's pre-critical essay on God's existence, in which Kant's conception of God as ens realissimum is most fully expounded, and he cites several passages that cohere with his exposition of Spinoza. SeeJacobi (1994),282-285, for differences between the 1787 and 1815 editions. 17. For example, Kant (1900- ),5: 8-9, at the beginning of KpV, and 6: 4n., at the beginning of his Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason.

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from Kant's philosophy, although he admits that Kant himself "has not yet boasted" about such a deduction. How might such a deduction proceed? Pistorius's greatest difficulty with the critical philosophy is that in contrast, he says, with Leibniz, Kant takes not only representations of outer sense but also representations of inner sense to yield knowledge only of appearances. Thus, the empirical self is no more transcendentally real than empirical objects. But then, Pistorius puzzles, to whom do all these appearances appear? Must there not be a self in itself if Kant's talk of appearances is to make sense? But how can we know ourselves to be selves in themselves if transcendental idealism is true, and everything in space and/or time is mere appearance? For the thinking self is surely in time. The difficulty is first raised in Pistorius's 1784 review of Kant's Prolegomena, but it is developed more fully in his 1786 review of Schulz's Erlauterungen. Between the two reviews, the pantheism controversy has erupted, And now, unquestionably under the influence of jacobi, Pistorius thinks that he perhaps sees what Kant might have in mind. Perhaps Kant is in fact a Spinozist, although Pistorius hesitates to say something that sounds so "malicious." Here is the relevant extract from Pistorius's 1786 review;" According to this [Kantian] system, reason demands the completion of the series of natural events and causes, it seeks a limit outside the same, ascends from conditioneds to unconditioneds, and must assume a limit, an unknown something as the unconditioned, because otherwise it can never find the sought after completion and satisfaction.-lf I am not mistaken, then reason, educated and guided by this theory of appearance and truth [i.e., transcendented idealism] can and must find this completion nowhere else but in the series itself. Presupposing that an intelligible world lies at the ground of and corresponds to the sensible world, and that something real lies at the ground of and corresponds to appearances, presupposing that all representations that are successive or that relate to time-determinations are merely apparent and subjective, for which reason nothing similar or corresponding [to them] finds a place in reality or ill the objective, intelligible world, then this world is surely the selfsubsistent thing [das fur sich bestehende Ding], is sufficient unto itself, and limits itself; consequently, it: has a beginning just as little as it has an end; 18. I translate this lengthy extract for two reasons. First, I do not see that a paraphrase would be of much help to the reader. Second, this section was unfortunately omitted from the English translation of the review.

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consequently, everything manifold, which is represented as simultaneously existent in space and as successive in time, this manifold and mutable, [for which] reason needed to seek a limit and an unconditioned, is mere illusion. It is the same as the illusion of which a man is capable without knowing it, [when he] imagines that the stream down which he travels constitutes a curved line returning to itself, that he always descends and never again ascends, that his stream has a beginning, and a source, and an end, or an outlet, for indeed all this is only appearance. Certainly, so long as we take time for something objective, for a representation that is at least partly grounded in things in themselves, as philosophers and laymen have hitherto done, we must presuppose a beginning and an end .of natural and our reason must seek the completion of these series outside them, and demand something unconditioned for every conditioned; if, however, taught better, we know all succession in time and everything manifold in space to be merely subjective and apparent, then we must also direct reason not to import this successive and manifold into the objective, intelligible world. We would have to say to [reason]: this situation, that we never come to an end in the for natural causes, but rather proceed from conditioned to conditioned ad infinitum, arises from the fact that in the actual objective world there is room for neither succession nor manifoldness, as little as beginning and end, or any limitation whatsoever, neither infinite divisibility nor indivisible parts. AU this finds its place onLy in the sensible world, not in the intelligible world, is only appearance and illusion, as much as the [figment of the] imagination that we take ourselves for actual substances. Rather, there is, provided overall that something exists, only one sole substance, and this is the sole thing in itself, the sole noumenon, namely the intelligible or objective world. This limits itself, this is the sphere which has neither beginning nor end, This is the sole ideal of pure reason. Thus, according to this [Kantian] theory of the apparent and the real, the ideas of reason are and must be specified in exactly the same way as Spinoza specified them. For him, as is known, the world is the sole substance, the self-completing series, or the unlimited sphere, which for him plays the role of the Godhead. The author's [i.e., Kant's] theory would secure [Spinoza's] pantheism against the important objection that an infinite thinking substance cannot be put together out of an infinite number of finite thinking substances, for if, according to [that theory] our substantiality is merely logical and apparent, if our I is nothing but self-consciousness, and this only a subjective pre-requisite of the synthesis of representations, a modification of other modifications; what then prevents it from being the case that all these representations are modifications of the sole substance? Thus

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reason finds all its demands satisfied in Spinoza's system, if timedeterminations and all representations related to them are merely apparent and subjective, and reason would be unjust, after such a satisfaction, if it still wanted to seek a particular Godhead, at any rate the interest of truth demands no Godhead other than the intelligible world. Once again, one will say, these are inferences, and indeed inferences which present Mr. Kant's theory in a malicious light. In itself, however, it contributes nothing towards a refutation of [that theory] if from it may be brought a deduction of Spinozism of which, as far as is known, he has not yet boasted. It is true, they are mere inferences; and I am sorry that they seem malicious, and to that extent they should also not prove anything against the Kantian theory.P I am not sure that it is possible to reconstruct a cogent argument on the basis of what Pistorius says. At least this much is clear: Spinozism can help Kantianism, and Kantianism can help Spinozism. Spinozism can help Kannanism, because it answers the question, "If our empirical selves are appearances, to whom do appearances appear?" The Spinozistic answer is that they appear to God, who is the sole substance, hence the sole transcendentally real being. At the same time, Kantianism can help Spinozism because it answers the question, "How can an infinite thinking substance be put together out of an infinite number of finite thinking substances?" The answer is that no such operation is necessary, for empirical selves are appearances, not finite thinking substances. This does not amount to the promised deduction of Spinozism. For it shows at most that Spinozism and Kantianism are compati/?le, since they agree on the negative thesis that empirical things-inCluding selves-are not substances, and that combining Spinozism and Kantianism into a single philosophical position might be a good idea for anyone who holds either view. Pistorius seems to want to make the stronger claim that Kant must be a Spinozist. But he is no more than suggestive about why. Like Jacobi, Pistorius seems to associate Kant's view about the omnitudo realitatis with Spinozism. He says of the «sole substance ... , namely the intelligible or objective world" that it "is the sale ideal of pure reason," echoing Kant's language in the Transcendental Ideal. Now, it is true that Kant talks atfirst of the omnitudo realitatis as if it were identical with the ens realissimum, 19. Pistorius (1786), 96-98, reprinted in Landau (ed.) (1991),329-330.

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which might suggest a Spinozist construal. But Kant explicitly revises his formulation, indicating that the omnuudo realitaus is grounded in God, so that God is not to 'be identified with the sum-total of all realiry.i? So is it merely because of a confusion arising from Kant's unclarity that Pistorius thinks him a Spinozist? An argument-but not a very good oneis suggested by the following passage: Certainly, so long as we take time for something objective, for a representation that is at least partly grounded in things in themselves, as philosophers and laymen have hitherto done, we must presuppose a beginning and an end of natural and our reason must seek the completion of these series outside them, and demand something unconditioned for every conditioned; if, however, taught better, we know all succession in time and everything manifold in space to be merely subjective and apparent, then we must also direct reason not to import this successive and manifold into the objective; intelligible world. We would have to say to [reason]: this situation, that we never. come to an end in the quest for natural causes, but rather proceed from conditioned to conditioned ad infinitum, arises from the fact that in the actual objective world there is room for neither succession nor manifoldness, as little as beginning and end, or any limitation whatsoever, neither infinite divisibility nor indivisible parts. All this finds its place only in the sensible world, not in the intelligible world, is only appearance and illusion, as much as the [figment of the] imagination that we take ourselves for actual substances. 21 Here Pistorius seems to be drawing a connection between commitment to the transcendentally real basis of time and commitment to the manifoldness of transcendentally real things. On the one hand, the transcendental realist holds that temporal succession is "at least partly grounded in things in themselves." Thus, the Leibnizian, for example, thinks that temporal property-ascriptions supervene on intrinsic property-ascriptions, even if the former are not directly equivalent to the latter. Someone who takes such a view may-perhaps, must-hold that there is some nontemporal manifoldness upon which temporal manifoldness supervenes So there is no obvious reason why a transcendental realist cannot accommodate the existence of more than one transcendentally real thing-say, a plurality of finite selves, plus God. On the other hand, the transcendeiual idealist holds

20. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A579/B607. 21. Pistorius (1786), 96-98, reprinted in Landau (ed.) (1991), 329-330.

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that temporal succession does not supervene on anything that is transcendentally real. So there is no nontemporal manifoldness on which temporal manifoldness is grounded. And then there is no way to accommodate the existence of more than one transcendentally real thing. For, if there is no transcendentally real manifoldness, then there can be no plurality of transcendentally real things. Although it is somewhat suggestive, this argument does not work. It does not follow from the thesis that there is no nontemporal transcendentally real manifoldness on which temporal manifoldness supervenes, that there can be no plurality of transcendentally real things. There may be nontemporal, transcendentally real manifoldness on which temporal manifoldness does not supervene. In any event, if one wants to accommodate a plurality of transcendentally real substances, one needs to have room for manifoldness-or, to use a more appropriate word, complexiry-i-within concepts. In other words, one needs to have room for a distinction between different concepts of things, such that one concept has a certain set of constituents and the other concept has another set. But conceptual complexity is quite different from the manifoldness involved in temporal succession, and Pistorius has given no reason why Kant's thoroughgoing elimination of the latter from the intelligible world should make it impossible for him to hold onto the former' Nevertheless, despite the failure of the argument that perhaps underlies Pistorius's line of thought, there is a clue to a more promising argument in something he says: "If I am not mistaken, then reason, educated and guided by this theory of appearance and truth [i.e., transcendental idealism] can and must find this completion nowhere else but in the series itself." For this suggests that there may be a Spinozistic solution to Kant's Third Antinomy. Indeed, as I am about to argue, it is possible to reach this conclusion by reading Kant's Third Antinomy through the lens of Jacobi's Spinoza interpretation. Now this is of no small significance. Not only does . Kant himself regard the antinomies as among his principal arguments for transcendental idealism, and not only does the Third Antinomy in particular pave the way for the important transition to Kant's practical philosophy, but-more importantly for my purposes-the Third Antinomy represents a direct response by Kant to the Agrippan, Leibnizian, and Humean/ Newtonian problems. So, if there is a Spinozistic solution to the Third Antinomy, then there is a Spinozistic solution that rivals Kant's transcendental idealism as a response to some of the problems that motivate it.

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To bring out the relationship between the argument for Spinozistic Monism ascribed to Spinoza by Jacobi and the argument for the antithesis in Kant's Third Antinomy, I will now discuss them, in parallel-at least, that is, until they diverge." In a letter to Mendelssohn, Jacobi attributes to Spinoza an argument for Holistic Monism in six steps." The first step expresses commitment to the project of escaping the Agrippan trilemma by finding a fourth alternative. 1. At the ground of every becoming there must lie a being that has not itself become; at the ground of evelY coming-to-be, something that has not come-to-be; at the ground of everything alterable, an unalterable and eternal thing."

This corresponds to a version of the Principle ~f Sufficient Reason that Kant ascribes to the faculty of reason:

If the conditioned is given, then the whole sum of conditions, and hence the absolutely unconditioned, is also given, through which alone the conditioned was possible." This principle plays the main role in Ka;Cs argument for the Third Antinomy's thesis that there must be causality of freedom, 61' absolute causation. Jacobi's second and third steps give an argument parallel to Kant's argument for the antithesis: II. Becoming can as little have come-to-be or begun as Being; or, if that

which subsists in itself (the eternally unalterable, that which persists in the impermanent) had ever been by itself, without the impermanent, it would never have produced a becoming, either within itself or outside, for these would both presuppose a coming-to-be from nothingness. III. From all eternity, therefore, the impermanent has been with the per22. We know that jacobi read the Critique before writing his book, so it is possible no proof for this, and my that he has been influenced by the Third Antinomy. But I know argument does not require it. My concern is not with the historical relationship between Kant and jacobi, but rather with the question: what is it like to read Kant only after one has read jacobi? 23. The argument is from jacobi (1998), VLS (1789), I: 93-95. I am not concerned here with the evaluation of jacobi as an interpreter. Certainly, the relationship between what jacobi says and the texts he cites from Spinoza is often hard to discern. Nevertheless, I will sometimes draw an inference about jacobi's intentions from the texts he cites. 24. jacobi (1998), VIS (1785), 1: 93. 25. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A409/B436.

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manent, the temporal with the eternal, the finite with the infinite, and whosoever assumes a beginning of the finite, also assumes a coming-tobe from nothingness." The parallel Kantian argument is as follows: Suppose there were a freedom in the transcendental sense, as a special kind of causality in accordance with which the occurrences of the world could follow, namely a faculty of absolutely beginning a state, and hence also a series of its consequences; then not only will-a series begin absolutely through this spontaneity, but the determination of this spontaneity itself to produce the series, i.e., its causality, will begin absolutely, so that nothing precedes it through which this occurring action is determined in accordance with constant laws. Every beginning of action, however, presupposes a state of the not yet acting cause, and a dynamically first beginning of action presupposes a state that has no causal connection at all with the cause of the previous one, i.e., in no way follows from it. Thus transcendental freedom is contrary to the causal law ... and hence is an empty thought -entity.27 What Jacobi calls the beginning of becoming corresponds to what Kant calls an absolute beginning. And the argument for rejecting the former parallels the argument for rejecting the latter. Suppose there was an absolute beginning, at which point the absolutely unconditioned started to generate series of conditioned conditions. Then there must have been a time prior to the absolute beginning, when the absolutely unconditioned was not engaged in such generation. But now there are only two possibilities. Either there is a sufficient reason why the absolutely unconditioned passes from inactivity to generation at the relevant time, a reason that was lacking before that time. Or there is no sufficient reason for the change. In either case, the result is inconsistent with the commitment to escaping the Agrippan trilemma expressed by Kant's principle of the unconditioned and by Jacobi's step one. The second case is obvious. In the first case, the sufficient reason cannot arise from the absolutely unconditioned itself, or else it could not have been lacking earlier. Therefore the sufficient reason must arise from elsewhere. But then what we have been calling the abso26. Jacobi (1998), ULS (1785),1: 93-94. 27. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A445-4471B473--475.

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lutely unconditioned is in-fact conditioned, and we have not succeeded in finding a fourth alternative to the Agrippan trtlemma.:" It is at this point that Jacobi's argument diverges from Kant's. IV. If the finite was with the eternal from all eternity, it cannot be outside it, for if it were outside it, it would either be another being that subsists on its own, or be produced by the subsisting thing from nothing. V. If it were produced by the subsisting thing from nothing, so too would the force or determination, in virtue of which it was produced by the infinite thing from nothingness, have come from nothingness; for in the infinite, eternal, permanent thing, everything is infinitely, permanently, and eternally actual. An action first initiated by the infinite being could not have begun otherwise than from all eternity, and its determination could not have derived from anywhere except from nothingness. 29 As I understand it, this argument has the same basic structure as the previous one, but it is concerned, not with temporality, but with modality. The previous argument, we might say, showed that the absolutely unconditioned cannot temporally transcend a generated series of conditioned conditions. That is, the former could not have preexisted the latter. The current argument claims that the absolutely unconditioned cannot modally transcend a generated series of conditioned conditions. That is, it cannot even be possible for the former to exist when the latter does not. For, if it is possible, then there must be some sufficient reason why the latter actually exists. Again, there are only two cases. Either there is no sufficient reason, or there is a sufficient reason that cannot arise from the absolutely unconditioned itself. In either case, we have not escaped from the Agrippan trilemma. Let us look more closely at Jacobi's text. Step IV distinguishes two ways in which the finite could be "outside" the eternal or the infinite. The first ------~

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28. Jacobi prefers to fOffimlaie the Principle of Sufficient Reason as the principle that nothing comes from nothing. See Jacobi (1998), OLS (1785), 1: 187; Spinoza (1925), 1: 21, Spinoza (2002),42. Doubtless, he prefers this formulation in part because it brings out sharply the incom- ' patibility he believes to exist between philosophical reasoning and faith. He may also prefer it because of the delicious irony that, in his view, this principle leads inexorably to nihilism. In this particular instance, Jacobi's preference accords with Kant's words, For Kant says of an absolute beginning of spontaneity to produce a series that "nothing precedes it through which this occurring action is determined in accordance with constant laws" 29. Jacobi (1998), OLS (1785), 1:94.

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way is mentioned only to be set aside. For it is obvious that the finite cannot be a "being that subsists on its own". Although the finitude of the finite has not been explicated, it must involve some way of lacking selfsufficiency and needing a ground. The second way is for the finite to be produced eternally from nothing by the infinite. Since the production is eternal and does not have an absolute beginning in time, the problem discussed in step II-the problem of temporal transcendence-is avoided. But a similar problem-the problem (if modal transcendence-remains. For if talk of eternal production is to mean anything, it must mean at least that it is possible for the producer to exist without the produced. And now there is no way to avoid the argument 1 gave a paragraph ago.3D Consequently, Jacobi concludes on Spinoza's behalf, the finite cannot be outside the infinite. Now, it may well seem, at this point, that there simply cannot be any escape from the Agrippan trilemma through the fourth alternative of an absolutely unconditioned. If, to use Jacobi's terminology, the finite is eternally in the infinite, then is the infinite not conditioned by the finite just as much as the finite is conditioned by the infinite? After the failure of both temporal and modal transcendence, how can the infinite be absolutely unconditioned? Although Kant considers only the failure of temporal transcendence, his remarks on the possibility of escaping from the Agrippan trilemma are also pertinent to Jacobi's situation. The root of the difficulty may be put as follows. One thinks of the absolutely unconditioned as the first member of the series of conditions it grounds. But then, although one has sought to safeguard the distinctiveness of the absolutely unconditioned, say by assuming its temporal (or modal) transcendence, nevertheless the absolutely unconditioned inevitably becomes homogeneous with the other members of the series. And then it becomes subject to the law of the series-to the demand for an antecedent condition-and so it is no longer the absolutely unconditioned with which one hoped to satisfy reason's demand once and for all. Consequently, if this difficulty is to be overcome, it can only be by ensuring the heterogeneity of the absolutely unconditioned to every member of the series of conditions.

30. Again,Jacobi's language echoes Kant's, perhaps by coincidence. For Kant says that it is not only the series that must begin absolutely, but also the "determination" to produce it, whileJacobi says that it is not only the. finite that must be produced from nothing, but also "the. force or determination, in virtue of which it was produced by the infinite thing."

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I will call this the Heterogeneity Requirement. Now, Kant does not, at this point, consider the possibility that there might be more than one way to meet the requirement, hence more than one way to escape from the Agrippan trilemma. Instead he goes on to develop one solution which, he claims, does the job. Namely, heterogeneity is at least logically possible if the series of conditions is not mathematical but dynamic-that is to say, if the pure category under which the conditions are connected and which one hopes to extend to the unconditioned is, for example, the category of causality. Furthermore, the transcendental idealism that Kant has already motivated on other grounds can flesh out the notion of heterogeneity, since he has already had to assume two worlds under distinct legislations, each realizing the pure categories of the understanding. So there is no contradiction in the idea of an uncaused cause in the intelligible world that is responsible for a series of conditions in the empirical world. It would seem, however, that, even if Kant's solution responds to the problem of temporal transcendence, it fails to respond to the problem of modal transcendence. For it would seem that Kant has in mind a free activity such that it is possible for the cause to exist while the effect does not. At worst, then, Kant's solution fails to meet the Heterogeneity Requirement. At best, supposing that there is either an objection to the modal transcendence problem or a Kantian response to that problem, it still seems that Kant's solution represents only one possible way of meeting the Heterogeneity Requirement and that Jacobi's Spinozistic solution promises to be another: VI. Hence the finite is in the infinite, so that the sum of all finite things,

equally containing within itself the whole of eternity at every moment, past and future, is one and the same as the infinite being itself.?' In effect, while Kant proposes that the absolutely unconditioned be transcendent to the series as a whole, indeed to the empirical world within which

the series unfolds, Jacobi proposes, on Spinoza's behalf, that the absolutely unconditioned be immanent within the series as a whole, indeed immanent to the empirical world within which the series unfolds. Both proposals seek to avoid the problematic situation in which the absolutely unconditioned is supposed to be transcendent to the first member of the series, which has the effect of pulling the absolute into the series and compromising its un-

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31. Jacobi (1998), OIS (1785),1: 95.

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conditionedness. Both proposals seek to render the absolutely unconditioned heterogeneous with respect to every member of the series. We have how succeeded in deriving Pistori us's suggestive formulation: "reason ... can and must find this completion nowhere else but in the series itself!' But what exactly does it mean for the absolutely unconditioned to be immanent within the series as a whole, or to be "one and the same" as "the sum of all finite things"? In his next paragraph-c--which I have had reason to cite above-Jacobi offers some clarification: VII. This sum is not an absurd combination of finite things, together constituting an infinite, but a whole in the strictest sense, whose parts can only be thought within it and according to it.32 The proposal is not, then, that the infinite is identical with the extension of the class of all finite things." Rather, I suggest, the proposal is that the sum of all finite things constitutes what Kant calls the omnitudo realitatis, a whole that completely determines its parts in virtue of its absolute first principle: the ens realissimum. It is just here that, as we saw earlier, Jacobi cites Kant's views on part/whole relations to shed light on Holistic Monism. According to my suggestion, the claim that the infinite is "one and the same" as "the sum of all finite things" needs to be handled with care. What it means is not that there is no distinction to be drawn. between the ens realissimum and the omnuudo realitati5. It means, rather, that the distinction is modal, not real, and that the former is the ground of the latter. So no finite thing is really distinct from its infinite ground. And, although the infinite ground cannot be without the finite, nevertheless the infinite conditions-that is, grounds-i-the finite, while the finite does not condition the infinite, which is therefore absolutely unconditioned. Another formulation of Pistorius may now be derived: "there is, provided overall that something exists, only one sole substance, and this is the sale thing in itself, the sale noumenon, namely the intelligible or objective world." This does not mean that the sale substance is the intelliglble.world as a manifold. It means rather that the sale substance is the intelligible world as a unity. One might say that the absolutely unconditioned constitutes the worldhood oj the intelligible world: the principle that renders it a whole prior

32. Jacobi (1998). ULS (1789). 1: 95-96. 33. Recall Pistorius, who was earlier cited as suggesting that Kantianism could help Spinozism against the objection that no aggregation of finite intellects can result in an infinite intellect.

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to its parts, which are completely determined through their delimitation of the whole. I hope to have made clear how a reader approaching the Clitiqu.e via Jacobi's Spinoza interpretation could detect an affinity between Kant's philosophy and Holistic Monism, in virtue of a connection between Jacobi's argument for Holistic Monism and Kant's Third Antinomy. However, it may be objected that, in spite of their structural similarities, the two arguments are concerned with entirely different matters. After all, the Spinozistic argument is concerned with the question of the absolute ground of the world, of which there can be only one, whereas Kant's argument is concerned with the question of the absolute ground of a series of events in a free will, Ofwhich there can be many. The objection is partly right butalso partly wrong. To be sure, Kant has his sights set on a demonstration of the logical possibility of a free will, and he believes that there can be many such wills. However, as Kant himself acknowledges, the argument is in the first instance concerned with the' absolute ground of the world: We have really established [in the argument for the Thesis] this necessity of a first beginning of a series of appearances from freedom only to the extent that this is required to make comprehensible an origin ofthe world, since one can take all the subsequent states to be a result of mere natural laws. But because the faculty of beginning a series in time entirely on its own is thereby proved (though no insight into it is achieved), now we are permitted also to allow that in the course of the world different series may begin on their own as far as their causality is concerned, and to ascribe to the substances in those series the faculty of acting from freedom;" One may well wonder how the same line of reasoning that applies to the unique ground of the world can be applied to different series within the world without fracturing the unity of the world. Of course, Kant makes this move because he believes that it is required if he is to make sense of freedom of the will. But this can only make Kant's move more puzzling to readers influenced by Spinozism. For how can Kant introduce, without any argument, a conception of freedom whose legitimacy is so deeply controversial? According to Spinoza, among others, the idea of freedom of the

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34. Kant (1900- ), KrV, A449-4501B476--4·77.

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will expresses an illusion. Clearly, Kant disagrees, taking it to be a genuine idea of an absolutely unconditioned condition. But on what basis? Pistorius raises this question, as does Fichte when he first reads the Critique of Pure

Reason.35 Before turning to Kant's critical engagement with Spinozism in the second Critique, I want to address a question arising from what has been said so far: if Jacobi's Spinozistic remark that the infinite is "one and the same" as "the sum of all finite things" is to be understood as saying that the distinction between the ens realissimum and the omnitudo realitatis is modal, not real, then why is Kant not a Holistic Monist? For, after all, Kant surely agrees that the distinction is modal, not real, both in his pre-critical philosophy and in at least some of his critical remarks about reason's demands upon our thinking. The answer is that Kant is not a Holistic Monist because of two views which he holds and which Spinoza rejects. First, Kant regards the ens realissimum as possessing every absolutely infinite intrinsic property, whereas Spinoza ascribes to his first principle infinite attributes, which are not intrinsic properties, whatever exactly they are. Second, Kant regards finite things in themselves as possessing finite versions of God's intrinsic properties, and he is committed to an analogical relationship between the predicates ascribed to finite things and the predicates ascribed to God, whereas Spinoza rejects any such relattonshtp.?" Given these views, Kant can reconcile the dependence of all things on God with real distinctions, not only between finite things bur also between each finite thing and God. On the one hand, finite things in themselves are dependent on God, not only for their actualization, but also [or their transcendentally real possibiliry, which cannot be rendered intelligible without reference to God as the ens realis35. In a posthumously published text from 1790, "Aphorisms concerning Religion und Deism: Fichte comments that even Kant, "the sharpest-wiued defender of freedom who ever was," merely takes the concept of freedom as "given from somewhere else (from sensation, no doubt)" and does nothing in the Third Antinomy "but to justify and clarify it," since "he would never have come upon any such concept in rigorous arguments from the first principles of human knowledge." See Fichte (1964- ), Jill: 290. At this point, Fichte dearly thinks, in Spinozist fashion, that the concept of freedom is based on a feeling and is not grounded in reason. Only later that year, when Fichte reads the second Clitique, with its Deduction of Freedom, does he acknowledge the legitimacy of Kant's conception of freedom of the win and experience a conversion to Kant's Copernican revolution. 36. See Kant (1900-- ), BJPM, 8: 154; Spinoza, E1Pl7S, in Spinoza (1925), 2: 62-63. translated in Spinoza (2002), 228-229.

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simum who grounds reality. On the other hand, however, finite things are substances apart from God and from each other. For, just because their properties are derivative versions of God's properties, which are intrinsic to Him, finite things are what they are in virtue of properties intrinsic to them." Holistic Monism, then, requires not only that the distinction between the omnitudo realitatis and the ens realLssimum be modal rather than real, but also that the omnitudo reolitatis be conceived in the way that Kant conceives empirical space and time: as a relational framework within which things are individuated. The positive and negative theses must both be maintained, and they must be maintained with respect to the same domain. Kant holds a version of the positive thesis about the intelligible world and a version of the negative thesis about the empirical world. Since he also holds that things in themselves and appearances are individuated in two quite different ways, he does not maintain both theses about the same domain. Consequently, he is not a Holistic Monist. This way of putting the requirements of Holistic Monism raises another question. In the previous chapter, I argued that Derivation Monism can be compatible with Kantian dualism. If, however, Holistic Monism is incompatible with the distinction between the way in which things in themselves are individuated and the way in which appearances are individuated, is it not incompatible with Kantian dualism? The answer, I think, is: no. Of course, Holistic Monism is plainly incompatible with Kant's fullyarticulated version of Kantian dualism, since that involves Monadic Individualism. But Holistic Monism is nevertheless compatible with the fundamental idea of two structures of grounding, such that one is subject to the Agrippan trilemma which the other escapes, and such that the former is dependent on the latter for its fundamental concepts. The former structure could be identified with a structure of grounding internal to a specific attribute of the absolute. Thus, for example, a passage from Spinoza cited by Jacobi in connection with his argument for Holistic Monism explicitly asserts that, within the attribute of extension, there are infinite regresses of physical grounds." Meanwhile, the latter structure 37. But see Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: Bin, where holiness, blessedness, and wisdom are said to pertain to God alone. 38. EIP28, Spinoza (2002), 233: "Every individual thing, i.e., anything whatever which is finite and has a determinate existence; cannot exist or he determined to act unless it be determined to exist and to act by another cause which is also finite and has a determinate existence. and this

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could be identified with the peculiarly philosophical demonstration that each attribute is indeed an expression of a single absolute first principlehence that things grounded with respect to any attribute are in fact derivatives of that principle. Thus one may regard Holistic Monism as part of a response to the very problems that motivate Kantian dualism. The resulting view is a two-aspect view: there is one world, the empirical world, but this single set of things may be viewed either from the empirical standpoint, as situated within a structure of grounding subject to the Agrippan trilernma, or from the philosophical standpoint, as situated .within a structure of grounding that terminates in an absolute first principle.

2.4 As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, Kant is committed to Monadic Individualism on two distinct levels. First, at the synthetic a pliori level of his theoretical commitment to the in itself, corresponding to Leibnizian hypothetical necessity, he thinks that the inhabitants of the intelligible world must be not only independent of the human mind and hence of space, time, and matter, but also substances with some intrinsic properties. Thus, if one had to be a transcendental realist, one would have to be not a Leibnizian monadologist but at any rate a Monadic Individualist. Of course, One does not have to be a transcendental realist, but even a transcendental idealist should recognize the need for Monadic Individualism about things in themselves and may employ it in auxiliary arguments for his idealism. Second, Monadic Individualism plays a central role in practical philosophy, for it provides just the right structure for the conception of agency required by morality. Two questions about the German idealists correspond to these two levels of commitment. First, why might one think that, if one had to be a transcendental realist, one should b~ a Holistic Monist rather than a Monadic Individualist? Or, why might one think that one should be a Holistic Monist at the level of hypothetical necessity about the in itself? Second, why might one think that Holistic Monism is to be preferred over Monadic Individualism within practical philosophy? In this section, I address the first of these questions.

cause again cannot exist or be determined to act unless it be determined to exist and to act by another cause which is also finite and has a determinate existence, and so ad infinitum." Some interpreters treat infinitely regressive causality as an illusion. See, for example, Joachim (1901). 98-·122. For a realistic interpretation, see Curley (1969), ch. 2.

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In the new context established by Jacobi, the question is raised in the form: Leibniz or Spinoza? But it is important to see that, setting aside the tangled exegetical questions about whether each figure is interpreted correctly or at least fairly, it is the contest between Monadic Individualism and Holistic Monism that is truly at stake. In the Critique of Pure Reason, especially in the Amphiboly, Kant presents Leibnizianism as the position that one would be most rational to adopt if one had to be a transcendental realist. At the same time, he argues that Leibniz's central doctrines follow rigorously from a fundamental error; the assumption that reflection by means of the pure categories is sufficient for the determination of objects of possible cognition. Kant does not consider the possibility that Spinozism, rather than Leibnizianisrn, would be the rigorously drawn consequence of this error, and he offers no arguments against this possibility. In Kant's lectures on metaphysics-prior to the 1790s-Spinoza is mentioned only to be dismissed in a standard, Wolffian manner.P Spinoza's monism is presented as a reductio ad absurdum of Descartes' poor definition of substance. For Descartes defines "substance" in terms of independence of existence, which inevitably leaves the status of finite-that is, dependent-substances unclear, and suggests that God is the sole substance."? However, substance is properly defined in terms of explanatory sufficiency." Descartes mistakenly conceived a substance as an ens a se, an independent existent, and Spinoza was correct to infer from this faulty conception that there could be only one substance. In contrast, Leibniz and the Wolffians conceived a substance as an ens per se, a thing that is what it is in virtue of its intrinsic properties, of which there can be many. Thus Spinoza is mentioned merely as the protagonist in a cautionary tale about the-importance of giving proper definitions.P

39. See Kant (1900- ) 28: 563, from the 1780s. 40. See Descartes, Principles ojPhilosophy I, #51, in Descartes (1964·1976), 9B: 24, translated in Descartes (1985), 1: 210: "By substance we can understand nothing other than a thing which exists in such a way as to depend on no other thing for its existence. And there is only one substance which can be understood to depend on no other thing whatsoever, namely God. In the case of all other substances, we perceive that they can exist only with the help of God'sconcurrence. Hence the term 'substance' does not apply univocally, as they say in the Schools, to God and to other things; that is, there is no distinctly intelligible meaning of the term which is common to God and his creatures." 41. Langton (1998) erroneously ascribes to Kant a Cartesian conception of substance. See, for example, 19: "A substance is a thing which can exist absolutely, independently of its relations to other things." 42. Hamann, who acted as Jacobi's go-between with Kant, reported to Jacobi on 30 November

r:

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To a reader formed by the Spinozism controversy, this must seem a blindspot in Kant's visual field. For, in the first Critiqu.e, Kant never considers a thesis that, in the wake of the controversy, cannot be avoided in a discussion of Leibniz: the thesis that Leibniz and Spinoza are philosophically closer than Leibniz and his followers have wanted to admit. In its maximal form, this thesis would all but eliminate the differences between Leibniz and Spinoza, either by rendering Spinoza a Leibnizian or by rendering Leibniz a Spinozist, In its minimal form, the thesis diminishes the differences between them to a point where the choice between them becomes an academic one depending on abstruse questions of metaphysics. The initial suggestion, developed at length in Mendelssohn's 1785 Morning Hours, is the minimal thesis that there is a "purified Spinozism" that is compatible with at least some central aspects of orthodox religion and that corresponds to one aspect of Leibniz's system. The "purified Spinozist" conception of the world-as a totality whose principle of unity is God and whose members subsist in God as His derivatives-is said to correspond to the Leibnizian conception of the mind of God pliar to the creation of the world. On the Leibnizian view, however, subsistence in the mind of God is sufficient only for the idea of a possible thing, not for the actual instantiation of that idea or for the actual existence of a thingY Early in his career, Mendelssohn had used this way of framing the issues to render plausible the claim that Leibniz had developed the doctrine of pre-established harmony under Spinoza's influence.t" In exchanges that were private at the time, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing had taken Spinoza's side, arguing that, once the notion of subsistence in God was available, the notion of subsistence outside God was at worst incoherent and at best redundant. 45 Once Jacobi has publicly exposed Lessing's sympathy for Spinozism ,as a scandal, Mendelssohn adopts the following strategy in his moming hou~s. First, Mendelssohn argues that Lessing is sympathetic only to a "purified Spinozism" that is compatible with at least some aspects of orthodox religion. Consequently, there is no scandal here, and the issue between Lessing's Spinozism and Leibnizianism is an academic one that does not affect 1785, that, by his own admission, Kant had never studied Spinoza and was too occupied with his own system to do so. See Hamann (1955-1915), 6: 161, cited by Zammito (1992), 233. 43. Mendelssohn (1974), [[1/2: 114-131. 44. Mendelssohn (1914), 1: 17, 344. 45. Lessing (J 979), 8: 515-516.

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fundamental commitments to religion and morality. Second, Mendelssohn argues that "purified .Spinozism" is refutable by an objection that does not touch Leibnizianism. As Mendelssohn notes, although Wolff had given the refutation in question' some time ago, no one had even attempted to respond on Spinoza's behalf." In 1793, a response to Mendelssohn and Wolff is finally given on Spinoza's behalf by Salomon Maimon, who also proposes the maximal thesis that Leibniz is himself a Spinozist.? One year later, in Fichte's Foundations (1794), Maimon is said to have shown «that, when fully thought out, the system of Leibniz is nothing other than Spinozism. "48 This statement justifies Fichte's contention that Spinozism is the optimal version of transcendental realism, hence transcendental idealism's principal rival. One looks in vain to either Mendelssohn or Maimon for a genuine confrontation between Monadic Individualism and Holistic Monism. That Mendelssohn is not sensitive to Leibniz's Monadic Individualism is one of Kant's points in his remarks on Jakob's Examination: Mendelssohn wants to help himself to talk about things in themselves, but he does not realize that such talk involves commitment to intrinsic properties that are incompatible with Newtonian physics. Meanwhile, Mendelssohn seems to attribute to Spinoza the view that the absolute is the totality, not the principle of the totality's unity. This is a misunderstanding of Holistic Monism against which we have seen Jacobi protesting. It is also the misunderstanding that prepares the way for the Wolffian objection thought by Mendelssohn to be decisive: Spinoza has confused the extensive infinity of the totality of things with the intensive infinity of God. To this objection Maimon responds that only an intensively infinite understanding could know an infinite number of things-that is, grasp the systematic connections among them and thus know them as a totality. However, although Maimon understands Holistic Monism better than Mendelssohn, he interprets Leibniz as being committed to Holistic Monism, not Monadic Individualism. Maimon does not suggest that Leibniz's view is identical to Spinoza's. But he has made the difference between them minute enough for 46. Mendelssohn (1974), H1I2: uo-us. Cr. Mendelssohn (1974), [: 16,25-28. For Wolff's refutation, see Wolff (1964- ), Theologlae Naturalis Pars II. ##671-716. In Mendelssohn (1974). 299, Altmann suggests that Mendelssohn is thinking of #706: "Infinite total reality-or in intentional form, infinite thought-is' not made up of finite realities that are infinite in number: 47. Maimon (ZOOOa), Strf, 4:59-63. 48. Fichte (1964- ), WL, 112: 264.

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him to say that, "if a Leibnizian will not accept" his interpretation of Leibniz, "let it be called Spinoza's system."? Yet no arguments are given, or even gestured at, that count for Holistic Monism and against Monadic Individualism. It is therefore in a spirit of hopefulness that one approaches a passage in the Critique oj Practical Reason in which Kant argues, first, that if one were a maximally rigorous transcendental realist, one would be a Spinozist-that is, a Holistic Monist-and, second, that transcendental idealism may nevertheless retain, at the level of hypothetical necessity, a Monadic Individualism that is required for moral responsibility. However, these arguments do not seem to be promising; in fact, they seem patently problematic. It is perhaps for this reason that they have inspired remarkably little commentary. 50 In what follows, I will attempt to reconstruct Kant's arguments. Kant takes his appeal to transcendental idealism in the Third Antinomy to establish no more than the logical nonimpossibility of freedom. There is no way, he thinks, to establish the real possibility of freedom, except by demonstrating its actuality, which he claims to do in the Analytic of the second Critique.:n After that Herculean labor has been performed, when Kant is discussing the need for the Analytic to take the systematic form he has given it in the Critical Elucidation of the Analytic, it comes as a surprise La learn that "a difficulty still awaits freedom insofar as it is to be united with the mechanism of nature in a being that belongs to the sensible world, a difficulty which, even after all the foregoing has been agreed to, stilI threatens freedom with complete destruction.">" The name of the difficulty is Spinozism. In the discussion that follows, Kant's goal is twofold. He wants to show that transcendental idealism can overcome the threat of Spinozism, and he wants to show that transcendental realism cannot. On the assumption, which Kant never questions, that Spinozism is incompatible with freedom and is generally undesirable, the ultimate result is a further argument for transcendental idealism. 49. Maimon (2000a), Strf, 4: 58. 50. See Beck (1960),205-207, who confesses that he cannot see how Kant meets the issue he raises, and then suggests that, in any event, Kant was no longer very much interested in "a puzzle from theology and classical rationalism." Remarkably, Allison (1980), while providing a useful survey of Kant's changing attitude to Spinoza, does not discuss this passage at all. 5i. See 262-301 below for a discussion of Kant's Deduction of Freedom. 52. Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 100.

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Kant considers the following argument for the thesis that transcendental idealism cannot avoid Spinozism: If it is granted us that the intelligible subject can still be free with respect to a given action, although as a subject also belonging to the sensible world, he is mechanically conditioned with respect to the same action, it nevertheless seems that, as soon as one admits that God as universal original being is the cause also of the existence of substance (a proposition that can never be given up without also giving up the concept of God as the being of all beings and with it his all-sufficiency, on which everything in theology depends), one must admit that a human being's actions have their determining ground in something altogether beyond his control, namely in the causality of a supreme being which is distinct from him and upon which his own existence and the entire determination of his causality absolutely depend. S3

This argument is given at the level of what I have called Kant's synthetic commitment to the in itself (see Chapter I), which corresponds to what Leibniz calls hypothetical necessity. Even after the Copernican revolution in philosophy-even after, for example, transcendental idealism has resolved the Third Antinomy, to which Kant alludes at the beginning of this passage-we may still ask (on the theoretically unprovable supposition that rationality is not only in us but outside us as well) what the intelligible world must be like. Thus we may ask whether it is to be conceived pluralistically, in accordance with Monadic Individualism, or whether it is to be conceived in accordance with Holistic Monism. As we have seen, by 1786 Kant gives a, new importance within his critical philosophy to the conception of God as ens realissimum, which had been so important to his pre-critical system. It is to this conception that Kant alludes in his parenthetical remark. The argument-call it argument A-may be reconstructed as follows: A1. God is all-sufficient. A2. God is the cause of the reality (i.e., essence) of substancets). A3. God is the cause of the existence of substancefs), "A4. God is the cause of the effects of substanceis). AS. Human actions are effects of substancets). A6. God is the cause of human actions. 53. Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 100-101.

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A7. Human actions are not free and human beings are not responsible for them, Al expresses the philosophical function of the appeal to God: an escape from the Agrippan trilemma is possible only if all series of grounds terminate in an absolute ground, and God is that absolute ground. From Al follows not only A2, on which Kant focuses in both the pre-critical writings and the Transcendental Ideal, but also A3. In other words, if God is allsufficient then He is the cause not only of the essences or real possibilities of things, but also of the existence of actual things.. A4 follows from A3 on the assumption that causality is transitive: that if X causes Y and Y causes Z, then X causes Z. Then AS and A6 follow easily. But, then, Kant worries, A7 seems unavoidable. One response would be to accept the argument up to A6, while rejecting A7 on the grounds that proximate causes of a certain kind are free and responsible agents. But Kant thinks that the transcendental idealist should instead reject the assumption that causality is transitive and hence the inference from A3 to A4: The difficulty mentioned above is resolved briefly and clearly as follows. If existence in time is only a sensible way of representing things which belongs to thinking beings in the world and consequently does not belong to them as things in themselves, then the creation of these beings is a creation of things in themselves, since the concept of a creation does not belong to the sensible way of representing existence or causality but can only be referred to noumena. Consequently, if I say of beings in the sensible world that they are created, 1 so far regard them as noumena. Just as it would thus be a contradiction to say that God is a creator of appearances, so it is also a contradiction to say that as creator he is the cause of actions in the sensible world and thus of actions as appearances, , even though he is the cause of the existence of the acting beings (as noumena), If it is now possible to affirm freedom without compromising the natural mechanism of actions as appearances (by taking existence in time to be something that holds only of appearances, not of things in themselves), then it cannot make the slightest difference that acting beings are creatures, since creation has to do with their intelligible but not their sensible existence and therefore cannot be regarded as the determining ground of appearances. S4

54. Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 102.

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To understand Kant's point here, we need to recall that the Third Antinomy can be resolved only by a conception of causation that meets the Heterogeneity Requirement. Transcendental idealism meets the requirement, Kant claims, because it enables us to distinguish between two uses of the category of causality. On the one hand, the category of causality is put to empirical use within judgments about appearances, which are necessarily in space and/or time and which are governed by a principle that requires an antecedent cause for every event, hence a causal structure that is infinitely regressive and incompatible with free or unconditioned causation. On the other hand, the category of causality is put to transcendental use within thoughts about the in itself, thougbts that can never amount to theoretical cognition, whatever other functions they may have. Thus there is no logical contradiction in the idea of something in itself that is an uncaused cause which is heterogeneous to a series of conditions in the world of appearances. For the causal relationship between the uncaused cause and the series may be construed transcendentally, while the causal relationship between the appearances in the series may be construed empirically. These considerations from the first Critique are explicitly directed to both divine and human freedom of action. Now, however, Kant is adding that there is an important distinction between divine and human action. Human beings have two characters: intelligible and empirical. When we humans regard ourselves as moral agents, we see ourselves as simultaneously inhabiting two worlds. As uncaused causes, we inhabit the intelligible world of the in itself. As embodied sources of empirical alteration, we inhabit the phenomenal world ofappearances. Thus human beings are causes in both the transcendental and empirical senses. However, God is a cause in only the transcendental sense. Thus, to say that God is creator is to say that God is the cause of the existence of the in itself, including human beings qua things in themselves. God causes the existence of human beings, whose understandings constitute the world of appearances within which human beings qua appearances are empirical causes of appearances. But from the premise that God transcendentally causes the existence of human beings qua things in themselves. (A3), as well as the premise that human beings qua appearances are empirical causes of appearances, it does not follow that God is the cause of appearances (A4). For it is inappropriate to apply the category of causality to God in the empirical sense. Indeed, it would be contradictory to do SOi because this would lead us to one version of the

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Third Antinomy. It would be necessary that God be an uncaused cause, for otherwise He could not be all-sufficient, and it would be impossible that God bean uncaused cause, for, as an empirical cause,His own causation would be temporal and in need of an antecedent cause. Consequently, the transcendental idealist is not forced to Spinozism by the premise that God is the creator of substance. Human beings alone are causes in both the transcendental and empirical senses. Hence human beings alone are responsible for their actions. As Kant concedes, this solution involves great difficulty and may not even be susceptible to lucid presentation. Presumably, what he has in mind is the difficulty of grasping how human beings can be regarded both as things in themselves and as appearances, and of seeing how this can give rise to moral responsibility for actions. These are general difficulties of Kant's account of action, and, for my purposes here, it is more important to note the crucial but unclear role played by the notion of substance. Kant uses the singular "substance" throughout his initial argument. This gives his formulations a certain extensional ambiguity, allowing them to be read on the assumption either of Spinoza's monism or of some other, nonmonistic conception of substance. For Spinoza, God is the sale substance and is also the cause of Himself. Thus human beings are not substances, and, indeed, there can be no plurality of substance whatsoever. Accordingly, Kant uses the singular "substance" throughout. However, it is more natural to read the argument on the assumption that there can be a plurality of substances and that human beings are substances. Perhaps we are supposed to start the argument on the latter assumption that human beings are substances, whereas we are meant to end the argument hy adopting the former assumption that God alone is substantial, which should lead us to reconstrue the preceding steps. In his response to the argument, however, Kant speaks of "the acting beings" in the plural. At this point, the ambiguity is resolved in favor of pluralism: God is the cause of the existence of substances, including human beings qua things in themselves. Thus God is not the sole substance. Another consideration is that Kant's formulations are less than forthcoming about the intension of the term substance. Implicit in the argument is the notion that substances contain principles of action; this is a traditional notion emphasized by Leibmz against Descartes' conception of material substance as extension. Kant does not explain how noumenal substances can be hath uncaused causes and effects of God's creation. In light of his

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explicit commitment to Monadic Individualism, however, not only in his pre-critical system, but also in the critical philosophy at the level of the synthetic commitment to the in itself, there is good reason to suppose that he assumes human beings to be substantial agents in virtue of their intrinsic properties, which are caused by God with respect to both their reality and their actuality, but which nevertheless endow their subjects with the causal independence necessary for agency. I now tum to Kant's claim that, unlike the transcendental idealist, the transcendental realist cannot avoid Spinozism and therefore cannot save freedom. In fact, if a human being's actions insofar as the)' belong to his determinations in time were not merely determinations of him as appearance but as a thing in itself, freedom could not be saved. A human being would be a marionette or an automaton, like Vaucanson's.P built and wound up by the supreme artist; self-consciousness would indeed make him a thinking automaton, but the consciousness of his own spontaneity, if taken for freedom, would be mere delusion inasmuch as it deserves to be called freedom only comparatively, because the proximate determining causes of its motion and a long series of their determining causes are indeed internal but the last and highest is found entirely in an alien hand. Therefore I do not see how those who insist on regarding time and space as determinations belonging to the existence of things in themselves would avoid fatalism of actions.... Hence, if this ideality of time and space is not adopted, nothing remains but Spinozism, in which space and time are essential determinations of the original being itself, while the things dependent upon it (ourselves, therefore, included) are not substances but merely accidents inhering in it; for, if these things exist merely as its effects in time, which would be the condition of their existence itself, then the actions of these beings would have to be merely its actions that it performs in any place and at any time." The basic point here is that the transcendental realist, lacking' any equivalent to Kant's distinction between the transcendental and the empirical uses of the category of causality, cannot meet the Heterogeneity Requirement. Consequently, the transcendental realist cannot reject the inference ~",

- _.. .. ....- - - - - _ . 5.5. Jacques de Vaucanson (1709-1782) of France was famous for the automata he produced in 173],-1738, notably a duck that is said to have been able to flap its wings, digest grain, and defecate. 56. Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 101. --~

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from A3 to A4, and, ultimately, the transcendental realist cannot escape the monistic construal of "substance." For human beings, as embodied causes of empirical effects, will have to be regarded as exclusively empirical causes. So it will be impossible to regard human beings as uncaused causes capable of free action. Indeed, since God is the cause of the existence of human beings, hence the cause of their effects, it is to Him alone that a principle of activity may be ascribed. So God alone is substance and-since there are presumably no other options-His creatures, including human beings-are His accidents. This argument, it must be said, goes by very quickly. What makes Kant so sure that the transcendental realist cannot meet the Heterogeneity Requirement in some way? What makes him so sure that the transcendental realist cannot somehow hold onto Monadic Individualism in a way that enables human beings to be both effects of God and substantial agents? The way to think about Kant's argument, I propose, is to think about it as a hypothetical development of Kant's pre-critical position prior to the Inaugural Dissertation. By appealing to Kant's pre-critical writings, it is possible to reconstruct in a more impressive form the argument-call it argument B-that transcendental realists should be Holistic Monists: Bl. God is all-sufficient. " B2. God is the cause of the reality (i.e., essence) of substance. B3. God is the cause of the existence of substance. B4. Finite things in themselves are in space and/or time. B5. Whatever is in space and/or time is necessarily in space and/or time. B6. Whatever is in space and/or time is necessarily in thoroughgoing causal community with everything thing else in space andlor time at the same time. B7. It is not because of any properties intrinsic to a thing that it is in space and/or time is in space and/or time, or in thoroughgoing ~ causal community with everything else in space and/or time at the same time. BS. Therefore, whatever is in space andlor time is in space and/or time as a necessary condition, not of its essence, but rather of its existence. B9. Only the cause of the existence of something could be the cause of necessary conditions for the existence of the thing that do not follow from its essence.

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BI0. Therefore, God is the sole cause of the existence of space and time, and hence of the existence of thoroughgoing causal community. Bll. Therefore, God is the sole substantial cause of the effects of everything in space and/or time. B12. Therefore, God is the sole substantial cause of all events in space and/or time. BU. Therefore, nothing in space anclJor time-including human beings-is a substantial cause. B14. Therefore all things in space anclJor time-including human beings-are accidents inhering in God. Steps Bl-3 are equivalent to steps Al-3, considered above. B4 expresses the transcendental realism against which the argument is directed. Crucially, this is transcendental realism about space and time. But not every transcendental realist needs to be a realist about space and time. For example, in his correspondence with Clarke, Leibniz is a transcendental realist about substances, but an empirical idealist about space' and time, which he calls merely ideaLS7 Why does Kant fail even to consider this option? One reason, as Kant explicitly notes, is that Mendelssohn is a transcendental realist about time. But another, more important reason is that, by 1768, Kant himself had seen that he could not be an empirical idealist about time but would have to be a transcendental realist, like Newton. Kant had not developed this position, because he had gone on to take the Copernican turn, but we may think of Kant as developing it here. The thought behind B5 is that, if a thing is in time, then its being in time is a very deep fact about it. This fact permeates through all of its properties. Thus a temporal thing could not be the thing that it is if it were atemporal. B6 expresses Kant's commitment to the holistic component of Holistic Monism, with respect to things in space and time. In his case, of course, the commitment is connected to Newtonianism and plays a crucial role in both his pre-critical and critical philosophies. In the pre-critical New Elucidation of 1755, Kant writes: "Allsubstances, in so far as they are connected with each other in the same space, reciprocally interact with each other, and thus they are dependent on each other in respect of their determina57. See, for example, Leibniz (2000), L5.33.

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tions.'?" As the principle of the Third Analogy, this principle is argued in the first Critique to be a necessary condition for the possibility of experience." B7 is central to the critical philosophy, but it is a central feature of Kant's pre-critical view as well. Not long after the sentence just quoted from the New Elucidation, Kant says: "But no substance of any kind has the power of determining other substances, distinct from itself, by means of that which belongs to it internally [as we have proved]." This is half of what Kant calls the principle of coexistence, one of the two main principles of the pre-critical system. The premise-as we have seen in Chapter I-is based on broadly Leibnizian thoughts about substance and relation. On the one hand, to be a substance is to "have a separate existence, that is to say, an existence which can be completely understood independently of all other substances." This amounts to Monadic Individualism but not to the full-blown monadological position that substances can have only intrinsic properties. On the other hand, "a relation is a relative determination, that is to say, a determination which cannot be understood in a thing considered absolutely," So "it follows that a relation and its determining ground can neither of them be understood in terms of the existence of a substance, when that existence is posited in itself."60 In other words, to consider a thing as a substance is to consider it absolutely or in itself, as a thing whose activity may be explained solely in virtue of its own intrinsic properties, without reference to any other substance. So consideration of a thing in itself cannot render intelligible the irreducibly relational determinations either of that thing or of any other thing, since irreducibly relational determinations are intelligible only through consideration of more than one relatum. But the spatial and temporal properties of things are irreducibly relational. Sowhatever is spatial and temporal is not so in itself That is, if you consider something solely as a substance-as something whose activity is intelligible in virtue of its intrinsic properties alone-then you cannot, through that consideration, explain any of the thing's spatial, temporal, or causal properties, for all of those properties are irreducibly relational. So far, Monadic Individualism has not been ruled out. In his pre-critical 58. Kant (l900~ ), ND, 1: 415. 59. Kant (l90Q-. ), KrV, A2111B257-A215/B262. 60. Kant (l90Q-. ), ND, 1: 413.

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philosophy, Kant holds.BI-7 and also maintains that there is a plurality of finite substances with intrinsic properties. Indeed, he holds that, although those properties cannot explain any spatial, temporal, or causal properties, it is nevertheless the case that nothing could have any spatial, temporal, or causal properties unless it had intrinsic properties rendering it a substance capable of bearing relational properties. 88 follows immediately from BI-7 and prepares the way for B9, which is the central contention of Kant's pre-critical. position. In the New Elucidation, Kant argues that, since all substances are in thoroughgoing community and so have irreducibly relational determinations, and since no substance has in itself the power to cause any .relational determination, substances can only have the power to interact in community in virtue of the connection, by means of which they are linked together in the idea entertained by the Infinite Being.... For the same indivisible act, which brings substances into existence and sustains them in existence, procures their reciprocal and universal dependence ... the same principle, which establishes the existence of things, also brings it about that they are subject to this law. And, hence, reciprocal interaction is established by means of those determinations which attach to the origin of their existence.?' A similar claim is made in the Inaugural Dissertation of 1770, although now only with respect to the intelligible world and with some hesitation: Granted that the inference from a given world to the unique cause of all its parts is valid, then, if conversely, the argument proceeded in the same from a given cause, which was common to an the parts, to the connection between them and, thus, to the form of the world (although I confess that this conclusion does not seem as clear to me), then the fundamental connection of substances would not be contingent but necessary, for all the substances are sustained by a common principle. 62 Kant need not think that B9 follows immediately from BI-8. He may think only that, given BI-8 and the strange idea of a necessary condition of something's existence that does not follow from its essence, the transcendental realist has no plausible alternative but to say that God-the cause of existence, hence the one who has power over it-is also the cause of

61. Kant (1900-- ), ND, 1: 415. 62. Kant (l900~ ), ro, 2: 409.

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these necessary conditions of existence. Thus B9 challenges the transcendental realist to say what else the cause could be, a challenge that Kant believes has not been met so far. BI0 follows immediately from Bl-9. It is Bll that sounds the death knell for Monadic Individualism. As we have seen in our discussion of premise B7, to consider something as a substance is to consider it as something whose effects are intelligible in virtue of its intrinsic properties. It has been argued that no intrinsic properties of finite things can explain any of their spatial, temporal, or causal properties. But then which effects of finite things can be explained by their intrinsic properties? It would seem that intrinsic properties do not explain any other properties of finite things. Rather, the assumption that finite things have intrinsic properties is introduced solely to explain the fact that finite things have nonintrinsic properties. But why is this necessary? It is necessary only if finite things are substances. But what grounds that assumption? Thanks to Bl, an absolute cause is already available to explain everything else. So what warrant is there for introducmg intrinsic properties that do no explanatory work that is not already being done? In his pre-critical commitment to Monadic Individualism, Kant has lapsed into a conception of finite substance as unknown substratum, a conception that is foreign to the Leibnizian tradition, in which every metaphysical commitment should serve the goal of enabling an escape from the Agrippan trilemma. Here Kant rejects this conception of finite substance, since God alone is sufficient for the avoidance of the trilemma. Two points are in order. First, it is true that, in the pre-critical writings, Kant thinks that he can hold onto Monadic Individualism and reject Bll, in virtue of what Ameriks calls the restraint argument, which claims that there is no pure passivity in action." However, This is not so much an argument as a reqUirement: nothing should be said to act, rather than to undergo an event, unless the intrinsic properties of that thing contribute . to the intelligibility of the occurrence in question. Unfortunately, neither Kant's pre-critical system nor the version of transcendental realism considered here has the resources to meet the requirement with respect to finite things. Here Kant candidly draws the conclusion that no finite thing should be said to act. Second, it is worth noting that the requirements of moral agency could not on their own constitute sufficient reason to assume Monadic Individl

63. See Amertks (1992), 263.

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ualism. For the argument is that, without the distinction between transcendental and empirical uses of the category of causality, the transcendental realist has no coherent way to think of human beings as uncaused causes who act in virtue of their intrinsic properties. If moral agency requires that we think of ourselves in a way that is incoherent from the viewpoint of metaphysical theory, then moral agency is, in Kant's words, "mere delusion." Once Bll is granted, it is easy to derive the Monistic component of Holistic Monism, expressed in B12-14.

2.5 Kant hardly intends to recommend Spinozism by arguing that it is the inevitable result of rigorous transcendental realism about space and time. He is setting the transcendental realist up for the argument that Spinozismand hence transcendental realism-is antinomic and therefore untenable. In other words, transcendental realism is not only incompatible with the requirements of moral agency, but it is also theoretically refutable. Again, however, his argument is highly elliptical: . If they [i.e, those who regard space and time as determinations belonging to the existence of things in themselves] (like the otherwise so acute Mendelssohn) flatly allow both [space and time] to be conditions necessarily belonging only to the existence of finite and derived beings but not to that of the infinite original being, I do not see how they would justify themselves in making such a distinction, whence they get a warrant to do so, or even how they would avoid the contradiction they encounter when they regard existence in time as a determination attaching to finite things in themselves, while God is the cause of this existence but cannot be the cause of time (or space) itself (because this must be presupposed as a necessary a priori condition for the existence of things); and consequently, his causality with respect to the existence of these things must be conditioned and even temporally conditioned; and this would unavoidably have to bring.in all that is contradictory to the concept of his infinity and independence.?" Alas, this argument seems patently invalid. Those transcendental realists who regard space and time as necessarily pertaining to finite things, and who also see that the necessity for these irreducibly relational determina64. Kant (1900·· ). KpV, 5: 101.

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Hans cannot be grounded in the essences or absolutely inner determinations of finite things, may be said to concede that space and time are necessary conditions for the existence of finite things. Thus they may be said to agree that space and time must be presupposed for the causality by which one finite thing brings another into existence. But why must they also say that space and time must be presupposed for the divine causality on which finite things in general depend for their existence? What prevents them from regarding God as the cause. not only of finite things, but also of space and time as necessary conditions for the existence of finite things? Surely. what justifies the distinction between God and finite things-c-the.distinction between a Being unconditioned by space and time and beings conditioned thereby-is just the absolute all-sufficiency of God that is presupposed from the start! The fallacy seems even more evident in a parallel passage that Kant adds to the B-edition of the first Critique: In natural theology, in thinking an object who not only can never be an object of intuition to us but cannot be an object of sensible intuition even to himself, we are careful to remove the conditions of time and space from his intuition-for all his knowledge must be intuition, and not thought, which always involves limitations. But with what right can we do this if we have previously made time and space forms of things in themselves, and such as would remain, as a priori conditions of the existence of things. even though the things themselveswere removed. As conditions of all existence in general, they must be conditions of the existence of God.65 Here Kant moves quickly from the premise that time and space are conditions of the existence of finite things in themselves to the conclusion that time and space are "conditions of all existence in general," including divine existence. But what could possibly justify this move? Two clues in these passages help us to reconstruct an argument that . Kant may have in mind. The first clue is the parenthetical remark in the passage from the second Critique that time "must be presupposed as a necessary a priori condition for the existence of things." The second clue is the remark in the passage from the first Critique about the intuitive character of divine knowledge, which can seem irrelevant. The argument 1 propose-call it argument C-is as follows: 65. Kant (1900- ), KrV. B71-72.

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Cl. God is the cause of the existence of time. C2. God is the cause of the existence of finite things in themselves, which are necessarily in time. C3. The actuality of time is independent of the actual existence of things in time. C4. The actuality of time is a presupposition of the existence of finite things in themselves. C5. Every presupposition of the existence of something finite is a. either an infinite actuality, which follows immediately from the actuality ofGod; b. or a limited version of an infinite actuality, which is derivative from the actuality of God through the mediation of a divine selflimitation. C6. The actuality of time is not derivative from the actuality of God through the mediation of a divine act. C7. The actuality of time follows immediately from the actuality of God. C8. God is not the cause of the existence of time; rather, time is a presupposition of the existence of God.

I

Cl follows from BI0-God is the sole cause of the existence of space and time, and hence of the existence of thoroughgoing causal community-which follows from BI-9. Underlying these steps, we should recall, is the idea of God as all-sufficient, as enabling escape from the Agrippan trilemma. C2 is an expression of transcendental realism about time, as well as Kant's point (B5) about the depth at which a thing is temporal if it is temporal. If something is in time, then, we might say, time is the medium within which all its properties are articulated. C3 is, I think, what Kant has in mind when he says, in the passage from the first Critique, that the transcendental realist about time and space renders them "such as would remain, as a priori conditions of the existence of things, even though the things themselves were removed." This is supposed to follow from arguments against Leibniz's relationalism.vsuch as the argument from incongruent counterparts put forward .by Kant in 1768. Its importance here will shortly become evident. C4 expresses what I think Kant means when he remarks parenthetically that time "must be presupposed." On some occasions, at least, it is plausible

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that Kant does not use the term presupposition ("Voraussetzung") lightly, to mean an assumption. He seems to use it to signify more specifically whatever is necessary on the supposition of an intelligible worui-s-c«, in Leibnizian terminology, whatever is hypothetically necessary.s" Given this construal, C4 follows from C2 and C3. . C5 spells out the two ways in which, on Kant's view, presuppositions can be actual. Presuppositions of the first kind are properties that God has in virtue of being the all-sufficient ens realissimum. These are realitiesintrinsic properties capable of playing a groundiJJg role":-that are absolutely infinite in degree of intensity. Presuppositions of the second kind are finite versions of the divine realities. To understand this, we need to understand what Kant himself thinks about divine knowledge and creation. Admittedly, we are concerned here with a transcendental realist, not with Kant. But, as I have suggested, we have to think of the target as the transcendental realist Kant would hypothetically be. Kant's own picture is as follows. God knows Himself, with a "knowledge [that] must be intuition, and not thought, which always involves limitations." Thus what God knows is not a mere concept or possibility but an actuality. In knowing Himself, God knows the absolutely infinite realities whose actuality follows immediately from His own actuality. These divine realities are presuppositions of the first kind. Since they are the archetypes or sources of all reality, God knows all that is possible in knowing Himself. This is what Kant means when he says that there is no distinction between possibility and actuality with respect to God. He does not mean, however, that there are no such things as unactualized possibilities for God to actualize in an act of creation. Rather, creation involves God's free act of choosing to limit some of His realities in determinate ways, thus choosing to actualize finite realities that constitute actual. individuals. These finite realities are presuppositions of the second kind. C6 states that the actuality of time is not a presupposition of the second kind. Kant offers no argument for it in either the passage from the first . 66. See, for example, Kant (1900-- ), KrV, A5721B600, where Kant says that the principle of thoroughgoing determination "considers everything ... in relation to the whole of possibility, as the sum total of all predicates of things in general; and by presupposing that as a condition a priori, it represents every thing as deriving its own possibility from the share it has in that whole of possibility." See also the description of the postulates of pure practical reason as "presuppositions having a necessarily practical reference" in Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 132. I am grateful to Christian Johnson for pointing out the importance of Kant's usage.

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Critique or the passage from the second. However, his thinking may be reconstructed on the basis of a related Rejlexion: Space and time are such necessary a priori determinations of the existence of things that if they were determinations of things in themselves, then not only would they along with all the consequences that pertain to them have to be made into conditions of the existence of divinity, but, on account of their infinity, absolute necessity, and necessity, they would even have to be made into divine properties. For if one has once made them into determinations of things in themselves, then there would be no reason why they should be limited to finite beings. If theology is not to contradict itself, it sees itself as necessitated to make both mere form of our sensibility/" One point that Kant seems to be making in this note is that time is infinite. Of course time is infinite extensively, not intensively. But it is unclear how the extensive infinity of time could be derived from the intensively infinite realities traditionally ascribed to God. As Kant argues in the Transcendental Aesthetic, time is an infinite whole that is prior to its parts, and the representation of time is primitive, underivable from any other representations. So it seems that time could not be a presupposition of the second kind because it is unclear how time could be derivative from some intensively infinite reality by limitation. If time is not a presupposition of the second kind, then it must be a presupposition of the first (Cl). But then time is a divine property, not the result of an act of divine creation. Consequently (C8), God is not the cause of the actuality of time. For time is not a creature. At this point, the transcendental realist is in trouble because C8 contradicts Cl. We have an antinomy: on the assumption of transcendental realism, God may be shown both to be and not to be the cause of the actuality of time. Since the thesis was derived from God's all-sufficiency, the antithesis also contradicts God's all-sufficiency. As Kant puts it, "consequently [God's] causality with respect to the existence of these things must be conditioned and even temporally conditioned; and this would unavoidably have to bring in all that is contradictory to the concept of his iafinity and independence." If we recall that to be in time is to be in time necessarily, then

67. R6317, in Kant (l900- ),18: 626, cited by Guyer (1987),353.

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we can see that, if God is in time, then all His properties-including His causality-become articulated in time. But then His causality becomes empirical, not transcendental, and the supposedly pure, intellectual idea of God has become tainted by the sensible. Consequently-notwithstanding the argument 1 reconstructed earlier with the help ofJacobi and PistoriusHolistic Monism cannot meet the Heterogeneity Requirement and cannot solve the Third Antinomy.

2.6 Is argument C truly a refutation of Spinozism? I will argue that it indeed presents a serious problem for Newtonianism, including a version of Kant's pre-critical position that accepts argument B. However, it is far from clear that argument C is a refutation of Holistic Monism more generally, and Spinoza himself has resources that suggest interesting responses to it. Two introductory remarks are called for. First, C9 follows from C8 only on an assumption about causation whose exact content-and force against Holistic Monism-is unclear. It could be the strong assumption that causation-either in general or at least in the case of God-must involve modal transcendence, such that the cause could be actual when the effect is not. Or it could be the weaker assumption that causation-either in general or at least in the case of God-must involve an asymmetry, so that there is some way in which the cause conditions the effect but the effect does not condition the cause. In any event, the Holistic Monist is committed to the view that the absolute is the cause or principle of the unity of the totality, and that the absolute could not be actual without the totality also being actual. If the assumption that justifies the inference of C9 from C8 is the assumption that (divine) causation requires modal transcendence, then the Holistic Monist rejects that assumption, for reasons given above. So the Holistic Monist need not accept C9 and can avoid the antinomy. If, however, the assumption is that (divine) causation involves an asymmetry, then the Holistic Monist is obliged to accept C9 only if there is no way in which the relationship between the absolute and the totality is asymmetric. But this remains to be seen. The relationship lacks the asymmetry that comes with modal transcendence, but there may be asymmetries of other kinds. Second, I want to add to the discussion another distinction with respect to infinity. We have met the distinction between extensive and intensive infinity. I now want to introduce the distinction between relative infinity

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and absolute infinity. One way to form a conception of infinity is first to think of something finite in some respect, then to negate the finitude of that thing. This yields a conception of relative infinity. For example, think of something that is in a determinate region of space, then negate the limitations of its presence, and you will think of something that is omnipresent in the sense that it is present throughout space. Or think of something that endures over a determinate stretch of time, then negate the limitations of its endurance, and you will think of something that is eternal in the sense that it exists at every moment of time. Now, one might express a line of thought that underlies C6-8 as follows. If one conceives divine infinity by negating the limitations of finite things in space and time, then one will conceive God only as relatively, not as absolutely infinite. But a relatively infinite God would be conditioned by space and time, and could not be all-sufficient. If time were a divine property in this sense, then God could only be relatively infinite. As I pointed out in Chapter 1, Kant's account of the derivation of finite realities from God's infinite realities by limitation seems designed in part to avoid this problem. Kant starts from a positive conception of infinity and derives finitude by negating infinity. He does not start from finitude and derive a conception of infinity by negation, which could yield only relative, not absolute infinity. His procedure is, we might say, progressive, not regressive, since it starts from the absolute. The connection between these two points is as follows. Although the Holistic Monist is committed to the view that the absolute and the totality are mutually necessary conditions, she may nevertheless maintain that the absolute is the cause of the totality, and not vice versa, because of a derivational asymmetry: the totality is progressively derivable from the absolute, but the absolute is not regressively derivable from the totality. Indeed, Kant himself is committed to this asymmetry, which can alone give rise to absolute, not relative infinity.?" To be sure, Kant may think that derivational asymmetry alone is not sufficient for causality and that, say, modal transcendence is also required. But the Holistic Monist has an argument against modal transcendence, to which Kant has no obvious response. Consequently, the question whether a particular version of Holistic Monism is refuted by argument C may be reduced to the question whether that version has an adequately progressive derivation to support the claim that the ab68. See 31-33 above.

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solute is the cause of the totality. In short, Holistic Monism without Derivation Monism is in trouble, but Holistic Monism with Derivation Monism is not. Although Kant does not explicitly mention Newton in either the passage from the first Critique or the passage from the second, it is clear that Newton is not far below the surface of Kant's argument. Indeed, the argument is a version of a charge leveled at Newton by Leibniz, among others." In the early eighteenth century, Newtonians were forced to distinguish their position from Spinozism, which was in tum identified with atheism on the grounds that what it called God was a relatively infinite spatia-temporal being who was therefore not God at all. 70 More recently, in a series of important essays, J. E. McGuire has drawn on Newton's unpublished papers to argue that Newton is not committed to what he calls pantheism-a position usually ascribed to Spinoza,"! Although McGuire's arguments are both insightful and instructive, his reconstruction of Newton's response to the pantheism charge shows why Newton lacks the resources to respond to Kant's deeper objection. McGuire says, "Notice that Newton is not embracing pantheism, since he wishes to assert the contrary truth that God is not identical with space. un For McGuire then, pantheism, is the identification of God with space. Although Newton can respond to an accusation of pantheism by distinguishing God from space-and, presumably, time-this is insufficient to defend Newton against the Kantian charge that his God is only relatively infinite, and hence conditioned by space and time. To defend Newton against the Kantian charge, it must be shown not only that Newton can distinguish God from space and time, but also that he can justify the claim that God is causally prior to space and time, and is in some way unconditioned by them. As McGuire shows, there can be no doubt that Newton distinguishes between the infinity of God and the infinity of space. First, perhaps fol-

69. See, for example, L5.50, in Leibniz and Clarke (2000): "If the reality of space and time, is necessary to the immensity and eternity of God; if God must be in space; if being in space, is a property of God; he will in some measure, depend upon time and space. and stand in need of them." 70. Criticism of Spinozism is one of the main concerns of Clarke (1998). 71. See the essays collected in McGuire (1995). Kant could have known of Newton's own position only the tip of the iceberg visible in the published works and the Leibniz·Clarke Corre-

spondence. 72. McGuire (1995), 13.

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lowing Pierre Gassendi, Newton rejects the idea that existence is a real attribute or perfection, a constituent of essence." Second, he conceives infinity not as a real attribute or perfection that could bea constituent of a thing's essence, but rather as a determination of the existence of a thing along with its intrinsic perfections. Thus, infinity alone implies not infinite perfection, but only the raising to an infinite degree of whatever perfections a thing possesses in virtue of its essence.?" In principle, then, it is possible for there to be infinite beings other than God, other than the most perfect being. Indeed, third, there is at least one infinite being other than Godnamely, space." Now, like Descartes and Kant, Newton insists that an adequate conception of an infinite being can be formed, not by negation of the limits of finite beings, but only in a positive manner, subsequent to which an adequate conception of finite beings can be formed: Should one say further that we do not understand what an infinite being is, save by negating the limitations of a finite being, and that this is a negative and faulty conception, I deny this. For the limit or boundary is the restriction or negation of greater reality or existence in the limited being, and the less we conceive of any being to be constrained by limits, the more we observe something to be attributed to it, that is, the more positively we conceive it. And thus by negating all limits the conception

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73. McGuire (1995), 11: "As it stands, the text does not allow us to state categorically that Newton either affirms or denies that existence is a predicate. He certainly denies that it is a real attribute, property or quality of anything. However, to say this is perfectly compatible with saying that existence is a transcendental predicate." The textual basis is a passage from Newton's drafts for Des Maizeaux's preface to the French translation of the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence: "The Reader is desired to observe, that wherever in the following papers through unavoidable narrowness of language, infinite space or Immensity & endless duration or Eternity, are spoken of as Qualities or Properties of the substance wch is Immense or Eternal, the terms Quality & Property are not taken in that sense wherein they are vulgarly, by the writers of l..ogick & MetaplIysicks applied to matter; but in such a sense as only implies them to be modes of existence in all beings, & unbounded modes & consequences of the existence of a substance which is really necessarily & substantially Omnipresent & Eternal; Which existence is neither a substance nor a quality, but the existence of a substance with all its attributes properties &. qualities, & yet is so modified by place and duration that those modes cannot be rejected without rejecting the existence: For the text and its history, see Koyre and Cohen (1962), 96-97. 74. McGuire (1995), 17. As McGuire explains, Newton is thus able toovercome Descartes' scruples, expressed in exchanges with Henry More, about calling space infinite. See Newton (2004), 25: "But 1 see what Descartes feared, namely that if he should consider space infinite, it would perhaps become God because of the perfection of infinity. But by no means, for infinity is not perfection except when it is attributed to perfect things: 75. Newton (2004), 23: "Space is extended infinitely in all directions."

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becomesmaximallypositive. "End" [finis] is a word negativewith respect to perception, and thus "infinity," since it is the negation of a negation (that is, of ends), will be a word maximally positive with respect to our perception and understanding, though it seems grammatically negative.?" However, Newton differs from Descartes by affirming that we can form a positive conception of the extensive infinity of space, and indeed that such a positive conception is crucial for mathematical practice." So Newton's commitment to the infinity of space does not entangle him in the view that, since God is infinite, space is God. He can distinguish between extensive and intensive infinity. There is also no doubt that Newton wants to say, not only that God is not identical with space, but also that God is prior to space. He says, for example, that space is an "emanative effect" of God and that God "constitutes" space." But I see no evidence that he has any positive account of the constitutive causality in question, by which to justify these assertions. Indeed, it is crucial to note wbat would be required for their justification. The danger, it should be recalled, is that an infinite cause is posited as the ground of all finite beings, but, if the cause is to be absolutely and not merely relatively infinite, then it must be heterogeneous to its finite effects. If the infinite cause is known only through its effects-that is, through the existence of finite beings and through the need to explain that existence-sthen it seems impossible to meet this Heterogeneity Requirement. For one's conception of the infinite cause and its causality can draw only on the resources made available by one's conception of finite things. Thus, if one is to meet the Heterogeneity Requirement, then one must be able to provide some positive account of the infinite cause and its causality-that is, some account that does not draw only on the resources made available by one's conception of finite things. It must be possible to give a progreSSive account

76. Newton (2004), 24. 77. For the relevant texts and an analysis of Newton's arguments, see McGuire (1995), ] 51189. 78. Using language drawn from More, Newton speaks of space as the "emanative effect"of God three times in "De gravitauone." See Newton (2004), 21, 25, 26. For talk of constitution, see Newton (1999), 941: "He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite; he is not duration and space, but he endures and is present. He endures always and is present everywhere, and by existing always and everywhere he constitutes duration and space: On the traditional understanding of emanative causation, see Carriero (1990). For a deflationary account of Newton's appeal to emanative causation, see Stein (2002), 268--269.

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of the infinite cause and its causality, not only a regressive account that argues from effect to cause. Newton is notoriously cagey about the metaphysical presuppositions of his position. He makes few of them public, and when he does so, it is often through an intermediary, so that the level of Newton's involvement in the debate and the degree of his commitment to what is said remain unclear. For example, in drafts of an Advertissement au Lecteur sent to Pierre Des Maizeaux for a French translation, Newton writes the following, which in the published version is attributed by Des Maizeaux. to Samuel Clarke: ... when the Hebrews called God Makom, the place in which we live & move & have our being & yet did not mean that space is God in a literal sense. For they used to speak of God by figures & allusions & put space for his omnipresence for a figure. And so space & duration are by the writers of Logick & Metaphysicks called quantities & with respect to God's ubiquity & omnipresence they have a nearer relation to the Predicaments of Ubi & Quando than to that of Quality & therefore where they are called Qualities the Reader is to understand it with a figure." Newton's intention here appears to be to prevent the reader from inferring that, since Clarke, speaking as a Newtonian, characterizes space as God's "property'P'-c-rhat is, in scholastic terminology, a necessary determination that is not part of His essence-Newton must think that God's existence, like the existence of finite is necessarily conditioned by space. So Newton is concerned to avoid the problems pointed out by Leibniz and, later, by Kant. But Newton offers no positive account of God's causal priority to space. He does not, for example, articulate the emanative, constitutive causality mentioned in his early, unpublished writings. Instead, he just insists that theology is unavoidably figurative-that theology must, in some nonliteral way, apply to God expressions properly applied to finite things. This strongly suggests that Newtonian theology is regressive, not progressive. Newton seems to think that the existence of God can be demonstrated only regressively, not progressively in the manner of Descartes' on-

79. Koyre and Cohen (1962), 101. 80. See Clarke (1998), 31: "Infinite space is nothing but abstract immensity or infinity, even as infinite duration is abstract eternity. And it would be just as proper to say that eternity is the essence of the supreme cause as to say that immensity is so. Indeed, they seem both to be but modes of an essence or substance incomprehensible to us." See Leibniz and Clarke (2000), C5.42.

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tological argument. But Newton also seems to draw on analogies suggested by finite things whenever he characterizes what God is. In the General Scholium, hewrites: We know him [i.e., God] only by his properties and attributes and by the wisest and best construction of things and their final causes, and we admire him because of his perfections, but we venerate and worship him .only because of his dominion. For we worship him as servants, and a god without dominion, providence, and final causes is nothing other than fate and nature. No variation in things arises from metaphysical necessity, which be the same always and everywhere. All the diversity of created things, each in its place and time, could only have arisen from the ideas and the will of a necessarily existing being. But God is said allegorically to see, hear, speak, laugh, love, hate, desire, give, receive, rejoice, be angry, fight, build, form, construct. For all discourse about God is derived from a certain similitude from things human, which while not perfect is nevertheless a similitude of some kind.P' That God is an entity in the highest degree perfect, all agree. But the highest idea of the perfection of an entity is that it should be one substance, simple, indivisible, living and life-giving, always everywhere of necessity existing, in the highest degree understanding all things, freely willing good things; by his will effecting things possible; communicating as far as is possible his own similitude to the more noble effects; containing all things in himself as their principle and location; decreeing and ruling all things by means of his substantial presence (as the thinking part or a man perceives the appearances of things brought into the brain and thence rules its own body); and constantly co-operating with all things according to accurate laws, as being the foundation and cause of the whole of nature, except where it is good to act otherwise.P Some of these characterizations are regressive in the sense that they express only what is required for God to be the infinite cause that renders finite things intelligible. The others seem analogical in character, as the paren'thetical remark makes explicit. In general, it seems clear that this conception of the ens perj'ectissimum is formed by considering of the thinking and willing "part of man" and by raising to an infinite degree the perfections intrinsic to the human being."

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81. Newton (1999), 942-943. 82. Cited by McGuire (1995),216, from the David Gregory MS. 245, fol. 14a, Library of the RoyalSociety. 83. McGuire (1995), 18, says that, "on Newton's showing God is not an ens pelfectisslmllm."

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It should be no surprise, then, that Newton explicitly characterizes God as spatially omnipresent and temporally sempitemal-s-hence as what Kant would regard as a cause that is only relatively infinite because conditioned by space and time. No doubt, Newton would protest that he does not mean that God is present at every point of space and time in the way thatfinite things are. But he shows no sign of possessing the resources for a positive conception of divine infinity. Since he himself acknowledges the need for a positive conception of infinity that is prior to one's conception of the finite, and since he possesses a positive conception of spatial infinity grounded in his mathematics, Newtonian theology seems to be in serious trouble. If we are supposed to have a positive conception of divine infinity that is distinct from the positive conception we have of spatial infinity, then Newton should tell us what it is. But this he never does. It was from problems of this sort, we should recall, that Kant's pre-critical program sought to"save Newtonianism by providing it with an adequate metaphysical foundation that included interalia an adequately progressive proof of God's existence as ens realissimum, along with a derivation of finite realities from divine realities. By 1766, however, as we saw in Chapter 1, he had realized that, although he had avoided Newton's problematic sensibilization of theology, he had developed a psychology that ran into an analogous problem. For his account of the mind relied too heavily on regression from physical phenomena. On Kant's pre-critical view, substances were spatially located, not in virtue of their absolutely inner determinations, for spatial location is an irreducibly relational determination, but rather in virtue of the community of forces within which substances are active insofar as they exist. Although this was intended primarily as an account of the spatiallocation of physical substances, it was hard for Kant to avoid extending the account to the spatial location of minds, which interact with physical substances and, moreover, are embodied in spatially located physical particulars. But if physical substances are spatially located in virtue of their motive forces, are mental substances spatially located in virtue of forces of some other unknown kind? As Kant came to see, his conception of the intelligible world, like Swedenborg's, was based on analogies suggested by phenomena in the empirical world. This is why, in the Inaugural Dissertation and then in the critical philosophy itself, Kant took such pains to This is dearly false, as the passage cited shows. McGuire must mean that Newton's conception of the ens perfectissimum is not traditional.

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distinguish the intellectual from the sensible, which led him to Kantian dualism. . It now turns out, however, from Kant's perspective in 1788, that his precritical system was in trouble, not only in its psychology, but in its theology too. In 1766, he had thought otherwise: .I am not speaking of the Infinite Spirit, who is its Creator and Sustainer, For the concept of the spirit-nature of the latter is easy, for it is merely negative and consists in denying that the properties of matter belong to. it, for they are incompatible with an infinite and- absolutely necessary substance. On the other hand, in the case of a spirit-substance, such as the human soul, which is supposed to exist in union with matter, the following difficulty arises: on the one hand, I am supposed to think such substances as existing in a reciprocal relation with physical beings so that they constitute wholes, while on the other hand lam supposed to think of the only kind of combination we know-that which occurs among material beings-as being canceled.P" Here Kant had suggested that he could avoid problems about God's spirit-nature because the concept of that spirit-nature "is merely negative." 1£ he had meant that his conception of God as "infinite and absolutely necessary substance" is merely negative, then, as we have seen, he would have been in trouble. For then he could conceive God only as a relatively infinite version of a finite thing and could not satisfy the Agrippan worry to which he thinks theology must respond. Indeed, he would then have had to follow Newton in conceiving God's spatiality by analogy with the spatiality of the mind, and he would have lacked the resources for any conception of God other than as omnipresent virtue of some unknown divine force. However, Kant instead must have meant that only his conception of God's spirit-nature is merely negative, while his conception of God as "infinite and absolutely necessary substance" is positive. The positive conception implies that God cannot be material, for no material substance can be absolutely infinite and necessary. This in turn allows us to form a merely negative conception of God as immaterial or spiritual. In 1768, however, Kant had realized that he could no longer hold, as he had since the beginning of his career, that space and time were explainable in terms of Newtonian forces. Had he failed to take the Copernican turn, he would have become, in critical terminology, a transcendental re84. Kant (1900- ), TGS, 2: 321n.

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alist rather than an empirical idealist ahout space and time. Kant's view in 1788 must be, then, that, if he had failed to take the Copernican turn, he would have become vulnerable to arguments Band C. In short, he would have become committed to Holistic Monism without Derivation Monism, and his tbeology would have become antinomic. What, then, of Spinoza himself, and those influenced by him? If one takes seriously the geometric format of the Ethics-and I do not say that it is always easy to do this-then one cannotdoubt that Spinoza intends to develop an unabashedly progressive account of the absolutely infinite first cause and of its causality. When Kant speaks of "Spinozism, in which space and time are essential determinations of the original being itself, while the things dependent upon it (ourselves, therefore, included) are not substances, but merely accidents inhering in it," he is open to the charge that he is imposing upon Spinoza a foreign conception of substance that ignores Spinoza's own views about substance, attribute, and mode. Such an imposition leads to the disastrous construal of propositions about substance and its attributes as if they were propositions about what we ordinarily call things-Spinoza's modes-and their properties. To be sure, Spinoza states that "God is a thinking thing" and that "God is an extended thing. "85 But what he means by this, as he himself says, is that thought and extension are attributes of God. Whatever exactly this may mean, it certainly means that it would be entirely illegitimate to assume that whatever follows from the propositions that "Rene is a thinking thing" and that "This table is an extended thing" also follows from similarsounding propositions about God. The linguistic similarity between propositions about modes-whether they are finite or relatively infinite-and propositions about absolutely infinite substance masks what Spinoza takes to be a fundamental ontological difference. If one does not acknowledge this then one forecloses the possibility of interpreting Spinoza in a way that could give rise to a conception of the absolute first principle and its causality which could meet the Heterogeneity Requirement. This is not the place to develop a detailed interpretation of either Spinoza's own view or German idealist versions of his basic notions." It is the 85. E2Pl-2, Spinoza (2002), 245. 86. For example, one may understand what the German idealists call potences as analogues of Spinoza's attributes. A potence is a determination of the totality, relative to which an individuation of parts is established as possible. So there can be many potenccs, each expressing one and the same absolute principle under a different aspect. Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel all make use of this

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place to say, rather, that nothing Kant says in the passages from the first and second Critiques considered here refutes the Spinozistic project of combining Holistic Monism with Derivation Monism. It should also be noted that, from a Spinozistic point of view, Kant's procedure is not progressive enough and must render Kant's God too homogeneous with finite creatures. For it is Kant's view that we may ascribe to God all and only those intrinsic properties that involve no negation and that are then raised to an infinite degree." Thus we start from intrinsic properties ascribed to beings other than God, and we end by ascribing analogous properties to God, or rather by ascribing to God original properties of which the intrinsic properties ascribed to finite beings are analogical copies. Thus, in his pre-critical discussion of God as ens realissimum, Kant gives two arguments to show that God has understanding and will. The first is that both are "true realities, and they can both co-exist together with the greatest possible reality in one thing. That this is so, he says, is simply an immediate judgment of the understanding." Second, if God did not have understanding and will, it would be impossible for God to be the ground of possible beings with understanding and will, because "understanding and will are properties which are capable of the highest degree of reality." One could therefore not ascribe any other realities to God that could serve as their ground. Here we see in action the procedure described in the lectures. For Kant's first argument is that the properties of understanding and will survive the via negationis, the way of negation, and his second argument is that infinite versions of those properties can and must be ascribed to God in virtue of His role as ens realissimum; given that finite beings with understanding and will actually exist. Kant defends his use of analogy between the properties of finite beings and the properties of God as follows: >l

Analogy does not consist in an imperfect similarity of things-to one another, as it is commonly taken; for in this case that would be something very uncertain.... If, however, we understand analogy to be the perfect similarity of relationships (not of things but relationships), or in short notion, which Schelling attributes to Karl August Eschenmayer. For a helpful discussion of Schelling's early use of the term and of Hegel's attempt to use it to rethink the relationship between concept and intuition, see Redding (1996), 57-71. 87. Sec 6']'-65, 75 above.

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what the mathematicians understand by proportion, then we will be satisfied at once; we can then form a concept of God and of his predicate which will be so sufficient that we will never need anything more. But obviously we will not assume any relations of magnitude (for this belongs to mathematics); but rather we will assume a relation of cause to effect, or even better, of ground to its consequence, so as to infer in an entirely philosophical manner. For just as in the world one thing is regarded as the cause of another thing when it contains the ground of this thing, so in the same way we regard the whole world as a consequence of its ground in God, and argue from the analogy.P" Spinoza, however, follows Maimonides in rejecting any analogical predication whatsoever with respect to God: Furthermore, I have something here to say about the intellect and will that is usually attributed to God. If will and intellect do indeed pertain to the eternal essence ,of God, one must understand in the case of both these attributes something very different from the meaning widely entertained. For the intellect and will that would constitute the essence of God would have to be vastly different from human intellect and will, and would have no point of agreement except the name. They could be no more alike than the celestial constellation of the Dog and the dog that barks. 89 A readily available argument for this conclusion is that God is absolutely infinite but, supposing that intellect and will are-as Kant and many others claim-"true realities," to raise them to infinity would enable one to conceive only a relatively infinite intellect and will. In other words, Kant worries about merely relative conceptions of extensive infinity, but he should be no Jess worried about merely relative conceptions of intensive infinity. Neither Spinoza nor the German idealists agree with Kant that intellect and will are "true realities" that survive the via negationis and are entirely positive. For Kant, this is simply "an immediate judgment of the understanding." In other words, he thinks that it is obvious. But for Spinoza, this immediate judgment is nothing more than a prejudice that cannot withstand examination. Here we reach perhaps the deepest level of disagreement between Kant and Holistic Monists, including German idealists, about the hypothetically necessary character of the transcendentally real. Namely, 88. Kant (1900- ),28: 1023. 89. ElPl?, Spinoza (2002),229.

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although Newtonian considerations about space, time, and community force Kant to conclude that no intrinsic properties are to be found in the empirical world, he still holds onto the idea of intrinsic properties. Even in his critical period, he thinks that reason demands intrinsic properties in transcendentally real things, and he continues to think that purified versions of intellect and will are eminent examples of intrinsic properties. In contrast, Holistic Monists see no role for intrinsic properties whatsoeverunless one wants to call the attributes of substance, or their equivalents in some German idealist system, intrinsic properties, which is in a way correct but also misleading?" Although it is in specific response to Newtonian physics that Kant develops the notion of a relational framework, within which objects can be individuated even when they lack positive transcendental reality, we may think of German idealists as freeing that notion from its original context and using it against Kant to dispute the contention that intellect and will are examples of intrinsic properties. Thus, Fichte and Hegel undertake to show that one could have neither intellect nor will-neither theoretical nor practical reason-unless one were conscious of oneself as situated within a relational framework of objects other than one's body and of subjects other than oneself.91

2.7 In light of the arguments considered in this chapter, it is understandable that someone sympathetic to Kant but influenced by Jacobi's presentation of Spinozism could reach the following conclusions. First, Kant has not 90. See, for example, Fichte (1964- ), 1/4, VDWL: 190: "The object of idealism is precisely this I in itself." In a footnote, Fichte remarks, "1 have hitherto avoided this expression in order not to occasion any representation of an I as a thing in itself. My concern was in vain.consequently, . [ will now employ this expression, because 1 do not see whom I have to spare." As principle of the omnlludo I'ealitatis, the absolute 1 may be said to be "in itself," for it alone is intelligible through determinations that are "in"-that is, derivative from-it. But the absolute I is not a thing or, more generally, an entity at all. So it is not a thing in itself and, indeed, the sense in which it is "in itself" is quite different from the sense in which an ens per se is said to be "in itself" in virtue of its intrinsic properties. 91. In this light, it should also be clear that German idealists need not be limited to Kant's-eor anyone else's-c-list of faculties. For Spinoza, absolutely infinite substance must express itself in an infinite number of attributes, although we know only two. A post-Kantian Holistic Monist should see no principled reason to limit the number of faculties, understood as capacities to render things intelligible within a relational framework. Thus there is in principle no limit to the number of what Hegel, in PhG, calls shapes of consciousness.

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refuted Holistic Monism about the transcendentally real-that is, here, the hypothetically necessary structure of the in itself-but rather Holistic Monism has refuted any version of Ka~t's position that remains committed to Monadic Individualism about the transcendentally real. Thus a version of Kant's transcendental idealism committed to Monadic Individualism would be outflanked by a version of transcendental realism committed to Holistic Monism. For the latter would be better able to meet the Heterogeneity Requirement than the former, thus better able to resolve the Third Antinomy and, to put the point in more general terms, better able to resolve the complex problematic-with its Agrippan, Leibnizian, and Newtonian! Humean layers-to which Kant himself is responding. Second, if transcendental idealism is to be saved, then either Kant's texts must be interpreted as committed to Holistic Monism rather than Monadic Individualism, or, if this cannot be done, a post-Kantian transcendental idealism committed to Holistic Monism must be constructed. As an example of the kind ofview that seems to outflank transcendental idealism committed to Monadic Individualism about the transcendentally real, consider Maimon's avowedly Spinozistic interpretation of what he takes to be Leihniz's esoteric teaching: God, as an infinite representational power, thinks from all eternity of all possible beings, i.e. He thinks Himself limited in all possible ways. He does not think discursively like us, but rather His thoughts are at the same time presentations. If one objects that we have no concept of such a manner of thinking, then I answer: we certainly have a concept of it, since we possess it in part. All concepts of mathematics are thought by us, and at the same time presented as real objects through construction a priori. Thus we are in this respect similar to God. No wonder, then, that the ancient philosophers valued mathematics highly and wanted to let nobody who was unskilled in that science enter their lecture halls. Not because, as one commonly pretends, the mathematical method is very advantageous in philosophy, but rather because mathematics teaches us the difference between merely discursive and real thinking. A regular decahedron, i.e, a corporeal figure enclosed within ten equal sides, is logically a correct concept because it contains no contradiction and yet its construction is impossible, consequently it is objectivelyfalse, or it has no object and so on. Thus God thinks all real objects, not merely according to the principle of contradiction so highly prized in philosophy, but rather as we (albeit in a more complete manner) think the objects of mathematics, i.e., He produces them immediately through thought. The harmony between the substances thus rests on the fact that they

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all express one and the same being. They must be limited in various ways, because God thinks them as limited in all possible ways, and God must think them as limited in all possible ways, because otherwise He could think nothing outside Himself.-They are to be compared with different equations of one and the same curved line, which express exactly the same being, and from all of which exactly the same properties may be .derived. "Bodies and souls stand in reciprocity with one another" means for Leibniz nothing other than that body is an expression of soul. The latter (insofar as it has clear representations) is substance proper. The former is exactly the same substance in appearance (substantia phaenomenan). Thus all their modifications are reciprocal? "Bodies arise from monads" means this much: in accordance with the reciprocal interaction of monads, according to their manifold relations, produces in us (since we cannot understand all these relations clearly) the appearance of bodies." Note, first, that the system sketched is committed to Holistic Monism. It leaves no room for intrinsic properties whatsoever. Second, it involves Kant's view of divine knowledge as intuition. Third, whereas Kant regards our ability to demonstrate theorems by construction as a mark of our finitude, Mannon regards this ability as the image of God within us. This last point is of great significance for German idealist methodology, as I will show in Chapter 5. For the moment, Maimon's connection of divine cognition with human construction in mathematics is useful insofar as it helps to answer an objection. So far, I have dealt with an auxiliary argument for transcendental idealism-the irreducible relationality of the empirical, considered in Chapter I-and with only one of Kant's main arguments-the Third Antinomy, considered in this chapter. But I have said nothing about what might well be regarded as Kant's central argument: the argument in the Aesthetic that geometrical knowledge, which is both apodictic and guaranteed to apply to any object of outer sense, would be impossible if space and time were not forms of specifically human sensibility. In order to conclude that Spinozism outflanked transcendental idealism committed to Monadic Individualism, would the German idealists not have to think that Spinozisrn provides a solution for the problem of geometrical knowledge, as well as for the Third Antinomy? By reading Maimon, in addition to Spinoza, the German idealists could

92. Maimon C2000a), Strf, 4: 42-43.

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easily have thought just this. For Maimon develops the view, hinted at in the passage quoted above, that we can attain, through construction in sensible intuition, knowledge guaranteed to apply to empirical objects, only if our constructions are obscure images of the purely intellectual construction through which those empirical objects are generated from the absolute first principle-in short, only if the a priori conditions of our sensibility and the a priori conditions of being an object of the senses are both expressions of a unique, absolute first principle. Thus Kant's revolutionary idea that the a priOli conditions of human knowledge constitute the a priori conditions of the objects of human knowledge, has to compete with Spinoza's idea of the distinct attributes of intellect and extension, which exhibit parallelisms and isomorphisms because they are expressions of one and the same divine substance. We are now in a good position to understand the thinking of Fichte and Schelling in the rnid-1790s. Both assume that any adequate philosophical system must combine Derivation Monism with Holistic Monism.?" Both also distinguish the version of transcendental idealism they espouse from Spinozism, which they take to be a version of transcendental realism. The structure of the optimal transcendental realism, they think, is the same as the structure of the optimal transcendental idealism. However, the former takes the absolute not-I as its first principle, while the latter takes the 93. Thus, for example, Schelling (1856-1861), VI, VlPP: 238n. criticizes Reinhold for not meeting the standard of systernaticity because of the relationship between his account of freedom and the first principle of his system: "It would be hard, even for as keen an author as he is, to give unity to his system, and adequately to connect it with the theory of freedom, by means of the highest principle (which should not only form its basis but also rule in everyone of its parts). A completed science shuns all philosophical artifices by which the I itself, so to speak, is taken apart and split into faculties which are not thinkable under any common principle of unity. The completed science does not aim at dead faculties that have no reality and exist only in artificial abstractions. It aims rather at the living unity of the I, which is the same in all manifestations of its action." Hegel makes essentially the same point about the requirement of systematiclty in sections 14-15 of the Encyclopedia Logic, in Hegel (1970), 8, EL: 59-60: "[section 14:] Free and genuine thought is inwardly cOIierete; hence it is Idea, and in all its universality it is the Idea or tlie Absolute. The science of it is essentially a system, since what is concretely true is so only in its inward self-unfolding and in taking and holding itself together in unity, i.e., as totality [section 15:) Each of the parts of philosophy is a philosophical whole, a circle that-closes upon itself; but in each of them the philosophical Idea is in a particular determinacy 01' element. Every single circle also breaks through the restriction of its element as well, precisely because it is inwardly totality, and it grounds a further sphere. The whole presents itself therefore as a circle of circles, each of which is a necessary moment, so that the system of its peculiar elements constitutes the whole Idea-which equally appears in each single one of them."

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absolute I as its first principle. At this stage, however, it is unclear to them whether they are developing transcendental idealism in accordance with Kant's actual intentions or whether they are developing it in accordance with the intentions he should have had. In 1799, Kant's repudiation compels them to adopt the latter view, but this hardly shakes their philosophical convictions, which had never been based on an interpretive claim. Not long after, in 1800-1801, the schism between Fichte and Schelling about the status of the philosophy of nature may be regarded as a dispute about the condition under which a system committed to both Derivation Monism and Holistic Monism counts as idealist. Fichte continues to hold that such a system is idealist only if the absolute I, as constituted in moral autonomy, is its starting point. Schelling, who has an ally in Hegel by 1801, now thinks that such a system is idealist if it culminates in the absolute {.94 Thus the development of what Schelling and Hegel call absolute idealism or the identity philosophy-in which the a priori conditions of knowledge are to be demonstrated as identical with the a priori conditions of beingrepresents a reconstrual of Kant's Copernican revolution via Spinozism. We are also in a position to understand, in at least an initial way, what is truly at stake in the German idealist criticism of Kant's doctrine of things in themselves. A familiar misunderstanding is expressed in, for example, Bertrand Russell's statement that "Kant's immediate successor, Fiehte, abandoned 'things in themselves' and carried subjectivism to a point which seems almost to involve a kind of insanity.'?" Here German idealism is seen as the culmination of a disastrous trend towards subjectivism. First, Descartes encloses the mind within itself, as its own inner world, leaving objects in an external world that can be known only with divine assistance; then Kant insists that these external objects are in principle unknowable, although he also maintains that they exist; finally, Fichte argues that they cannot be said to exist at all. This story assumes that things in themselves are objects empirically . external to the individual mind, so that Fiehte becomes a solipsist. In fact, however, the in itself is the transcendentally real domain, structured by ground-consequence relations that terminate in an absolute or all-sufficient ground, which must exist on the supposition of an intelligible world, or

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on the supposition of an escape from the Agrippan trilemma. What is at stake in German idealist rejections of Kant's doctrine of things in themselves is whether this transcendentally real domain is to be conceived in accordance with Monadic Individualism, as Kant thinks, modifying Leibniz, or in accordance with Holistic Monism, as the German idealists think, modifying Spinoza. When they reject Kant's Two Essences view, the German idealists adopt what is in effect a Two Aspects view: the empirical aspect of a thing corresponds to the way in which a thing's being as it is grounded in its relations to other things within the totality; the transcendental aspect of a thing corresponds to the way in which a thing's being as it is, is grounded in its relation to the totality and ultimately to the totality's absolute first principle. On this view, there is one world, understandable in two ways, or from two standpoints. Two Aspectsviews appeal to many contemporary Kantians and postKantians because they seem to avoid the supernaturalism of Two Worlds views, including the Two Existents and Two Essences views. But we should not assume that the fact that German idealists develop Two Aspects views make their systems compatible with contemporary naturalism. The same question arises about German idealist systems as about Spinoza: do they naturalize metaphysics and theology, or do they supernaturalize naturet?" 96. Donagan (1991), For further discussion, see the Conclusion of the present volume.

3

Post-Kantian Skepticism Skepticism is beginning to become a sickness of the age, and-which is a rare phenomenon in history-is beginning to spread itself among more classes and to express its effects on a large scale. The most recent revolution in philosophy was supposed to overthrow it, but according to a new discovery it is supposed to have bent not a hair on its head or, rather, even to have strengthened it. -Staudlin (1784), 2 Critical and skeptical philosophy stand in exactly the same relationship as man and the serpent after the fall, as it says: "He (man) will tread upon your head (that is, the critical philosopher will always disturb the skeptical philosopher with the necessity and universality of principles required for scientific cognition); but you (serpent) will bite him on the heel (that is, the skeptic will always tease the critical philosopher with the fact that his necessary and universally valid principles have no use)." Quidfacti? -Maimon (2000a), Strf, 4: 80, based on Genesis 3:15

3.1 It has become a commonplace in recent work that German

ideal~s

a response to skepticism expressed in the wake of Kant's critical philosophy. Although this thesis Contains an important kernel of truth, it needs to be qualified. First, as I have argued in Chapters 1 and 2, the German idealist project of systematization should be seen, in large part, as a response to the same problematic that motivates Kant's critical philosophy: a complex problematic composed of Agrippan, Leibnizian, and Newtonian/Humean layers. For one effect of the Spinozism controversy initiated by Jacobi is to give the German idealists reason to believe that the best response to this problematic would be a system committed to both Derivation and Holistic Monism. This explains why the German idealists could be satisfied only by a 146

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system that aspires to grasp "das All," or the real as a totality. But it does so in terms of a skeptical problematic that is not especially post-Kantian.! Second, as I will argue in this chapter, the other major effect of the Spinozism controversy is to transform this problematic in what comes to be a distinctively post-Kantian way. This transformation, which gives rise to genuinely post-Kantian skepticisms, explains why, for the German idealists, what is at stake in the systematization of Kant's philosophy is all or

nothing. In what follows, I will first characterize Kant's attitude towards skepticism, arguing that, in spite of his own intentions, the logic of his position leaves open the possibility of at least two species of distinctively postKantian skepticism. I will then show that, thanks to Jacobi and Maimon, these possibilities were actualized within the 1780s and 1790s. I will also consider to what extent the resulting skepticisms depend, either on inadequate interpretations of Kantian dualism or on a Holistic Monism that Kant does not share. In the previous chapter, I was concerned with the German idealist transformation of the transcendental pole of Kantian dualism; in this chapter, 1 focus on the German idealist reconceptualization of the empirical. As we shall the first kind of post-Kantian skepticism to be considered leads the German idealists to view skepticism as a threat not only to academic philosophy, as it is from Kant's perspective, but also to everyday life. The second kind of post-Kantian skepticism leads to a prioritization of the nonmathematical natural sciences, such as biology and chemistry, over the mathematical natural sciences. This prioritization is the reverse of Kant's and is distinctive of the Naturphilosophie central to the systems of Schelling and Hegel.

__ _ - - - _ .__ __ __. _ - - - -

- - _ . _ - - _...._ ._-_. __..

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L In what follows, I will speak of "post-Kantian skepticism." I do not mean to imply that Jacobi, or any post-Kantian, advocates such a skepucism-i-ahhough Marmon, whom I shan discuss below, comes closest, insofar as he does not think transcendental philosophy will ever overcome skepticism. Rather, the point is that some critics of Kant may criticize transcendental idealism because they find that it amounts to some new kindfs) of skepticism enabled by Kant's revolution, whereas some post-Kantians may find that their acceptance of Kant's revolution makes some new kind(s) of skepticism a source of anxiety for them. There is an intimate connection between what I call "post-Kantian skepticism" and what james Conant, in his forthcoming work, calls "Kantian skepticism." The affinities and differences between us deserve discussion elsewhere.

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3.2 Some philosophers today regard skepticism as a problem that is, or ought to be, superseded-an issue of the past, to which. we should not bother responding." Yet it would be no exaggeration to say that others regard skepticism as in some way defining philosophy's contemporary task." A similar division is found among interpreters of Kant. Some think that Kant is not concerned to argue against skepticism, since he believes that nobody could be a serious skeptic in the face of Newton's accomplishments. Yetothers measure Kant's accomplishments by his success or failure in replying to the skepticism of Hume." I will argue that Kant holds both of the attitudes mentioned above. That is, Kant thinks both that skepticism defines the task of philosophy and that skepticism is, or ought to be, a problem of the past. To understand Kant's view of skepticism, we must see how he could hold these two-apparently opposed-attitudes. .

2. Three ways of dismissing skepticism stand out as influential over the last few decades. What is striking is that views that are so very different should have conspired to prod~e a common effect.According to Quine, classical epistemology has been largely concerned with the justification of knowledge against skepticism. But that project has Iailed. See Quine, "Epistemology Naturalized" in Quine (1969), 72: "The Humean predicament is the human predicament." So classical epistemology should give way to a naturalized successor-discipline without justificatory pretensions. Accordingto Rorty (1979), 140: "The Cartesian mind simultaneously made possible veilof-ideas skepticism and a discipline devoted to circumventing it." Since, then, we can dispense with the Cartesian theory of the mind, we can also dispense both with (modem) skepticism and with the epistemological discipline concerned to refute it. According to Chisholm, however.Quine and Rorty share a false presupposition: classical epistemology has never been solely o!.Jlll&.ssarily concerned to refute skepticism. Pure, theoretical analysis of the structure ofjustification is logically independent of any interest in skeptical doubt, which is in any event of doubtful coherence. So classical epistemology should continue but without the interest in skepticism that has motivated some of its practitioners. See Chisholm (1966), 24-27. ' 3. See Williams (1996), xii-46, for discussion of what he calls the New Skepticism or New -Humeanism of, for example, Stanley Cavell, Thomas Nagel, and Barry Stroud, who hold, in their different ways, that skepticism is deeply rooted in the 'very activity of philosophizing and so must be confronted in any self-reflective philosophy. Some who rhetorically dismiss skepticism may nevertheless reinforce the sense of its standing importance. For example, Quine's remark about Burne, cited in the previous footnote, may be taken that way. 4. The prevailing view in recent-s-especially but not exclusively Anglophone-i-literature, has been that Kant's achievements must be measured against his ability to refute skepticism. See, for example, Wolff (1963), ch. 1; Walker (1978), vii; Henrich (1989), 37; Stroud (1983). For an approach that focuses on Kant's relation to Newton, see Friedman (1992a), and for a careful examination of Kant's attitude to skepticism, see Engstrom (1994) and Hatfield (2001).

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Few passages are more frequently cited in accounts of Kant's motivation than the passage from the Prolegomena in which he says that his recollection of Hume first interrupted his dogmatic slumber. 5 however, two points need to be noted. First, as Kant's initial expressions of Humean skepticism show, Hume's rel1ections on causality strike him as bringing out a problem related to the problematic within which he is already working, a' problematic chara~terized by the need to respond to the Agrippan trilemma and, more specifically, to preserve the difference between a physics susceptible to the trilemma and a metaphysics designed to escape it, while grounding the former in the latter. Reading Hume convinces Kant that there is no hope whatsoever of showing that instantiations of what he calls real ground-consequence relations-governed by the hypothetically necessary laws of Newtonian physics-are derivable, even in principle, from instantiations of what he calls logical ground-consequence relations-governed by the absolutely necessary laws of Kant's quasiLeibnizian metaphysics." This means that Kant's project of synthesizing Leibniz and Newton cannot succeed. It also raises a skeptical problem about real ground-consequence relations. But this is not a problem that depends on any assumption about whether empirically external objects are immediately given through the senses, or whether ideas alone are immediately given. Nor does it depend on any assumptions specific to Hume about the origins of knowledge, such as the thesis that every idea is a copy of some impression. As it strikes Kant, Humean skepticism adds a layer to a problematic that is Agrippan, not-to use an overly simplistic termCartesian." 5. Kant (1900-), Pro!, 4: 260. 6. See Chapter 1. 7. "Cartesian skepticism" is conventionally taken in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy to be a form of skepticism in which knowledge-claims about what is within the mind-for example, about what I am thinking now-are taken to be unproblematic, whereas knowledge-claims about what is without the mind-for example, about my body or any object spatially distinct from my body-are taken to be problematic. In addition, the problem facing claims of the second kind is taken to be that, although we have reasons for making these claims, reasons are also available for making-or at least taking seriously-incompatible claims. So there is supposed to be a gap between the reasons we ordinarily find compelling and the truth of the claims we make on their basis, The skeptical considerations adduced by Descartes in the first Meditation may be characterized in this way, and I say accordingly that Kant's concern with Hurne is not a concern with "Cartesian skepticism" in tllissense. However, in his second Meditation, Descartes himself develops a different sort of skeptical consideration that anticipates Hume and Kant. He argues, to put it in Kantian terms, that the category of substance is not empirical, because no sensory perception or

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Second, it is important to note that Kant never says that he was provoked into attempting a refutation of Hume's skepticism. Rather, the description of their relationship suggested by the passage is that Hume helped Kant to ask the central question of transcendental philosophy. To inaugurate transcendental philosophy, Kant needed first to,generalize Burne's skeptical question and then to ask that question in a different tone or mood. Whereas Hume may be said to have asked, "How could we possibly be justified in employing the concept of cause?" Kant found a way to ask, "Under what conditions can we employ the concept of cause?" or,_ more generally, "How are synthetic judgments a priori possiblei'" Skepticism, Kant says later in the Prolegomena, is "a way of thinking, in which reason moves against itself with such violence, that it could never have arisen except in complete despair [in volliger VerzweiflungJ of achieving satisfaction with respect to reason's most important aspirations."? Hume's skeptical question is asked in a mood of despair, whereas Kant's transcendental question is asked in a mood of what Kant elsewhere calls hope: hope that reason 'can fulfill its aspiration to self-knowledge.'? This is how skepticism defines the task of philosophy for Kant. It is not that philosophy must seek, above all, to refute skepticism. Rather, philos-

series of sensol)' perceptions could legitimately give rise to it. From this, Descartes concludes that the category must be innate, On the way to this conclusion, however, he cannot help but raise the question of whether there might be a gap-e-not, this time, between justification and truth, but rather-i-between the reasons we give for our claims and those claims themselves, In Hume's hands, this becomes a skeptical doubt, not about whether something external is given to us thr~~gh the senses, but rather about what we may justifiably claim about this something. Hume himse}~is selfconscious about the affinities between the skepticism with which he is concerned ay ancient skepticism. ' 8, Compare Lear (1998), 285-286: "A transcendental argument for X. , , will answer the question 'Bow is X possible?' when that question is asked with a straight face rather than a skeptical sneer," For Lear, too, the mood in which the question is asked is crucial. But must a skeptical question be accompanied by a sneer rather than, say, a wild-eyed look of horror, or a disillusioned .shrug of the shoulder? 9. Kant (1900- ), Pro14: 271. 10. See also Kant (1900- ), KrV, A4071B433-434, where Kant refers to "skeptical hopelessness Woffnungslosigkeitl." The notion of rational hope plays a crucial role in Kant's doctrine of the highest good. On reason's aspiration to self-knowledge, see A745/B773, where Kant imagines Burne answering a question about the purpose of skepticism by saying that we have been made vulnerable to skepticism "solely in order to advance reason in its self-knowledge, and because of a certain indignation at the violence that is done to reason by those who, while boasting of its powers, yet hinder it from candid admission of the weaknesses which have become obvious to it through its own self-examination."

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ophy must learn from skepticism which questions to ask, while transmuting the skeptic's mood of despair. Thus, transcendental philosophy may be described, not only as an account of the conditions of the possibility of synthetic Judgments a priori, but also as an account of the conditions of the possibility of skepticism. For the list of synthetic judgments a priori is at the same time a list of judgments that are vulnerable to skeptical doubt. There is a genuine problem about these judgments, a problem articulatedat least, in part-s-by Hume. For we can easily grasp that the ground of synthetic judgments a posteriori is experience, and we can readily see that the ground of analytic judgments is the general logic of our concepts, but we cannot understand the ground of synthetic judgments a priori unless we alter the direction of our gaze. As Kant says in several passages, Hume gave up too hastily and was thus driven to skeptical despair.!' He missed the possibility that some judgments might be neither enabled by experience nor independent of experience but, rather, conditions for the possibility of experience. What sustains Kant in his hopefulness is precisely his generalization of Hume's problem. For once Kant has arrived at the general idea of synthetic judgments a priori, he sees that the problem arises as much for mathematics andJor what he calls the general science of-nature, as it does for causal judgments. But mathematics and mathematical physics are, for Kant, beyond reasonable doubt, and he is confident that Burne would have said the same if he had realized that his problem extended to them. If Hume's problem is soluble in the cases of mathematics and mathematical physics, then we have reason to hope that it is soluble more generally. Any view that gives up the quest for a general solution, abandoning itself to despair, is-as Kant says of empiricism in the introduction to the Transcendental Deduction-"refuted" IWiderlegtl through the Factum of mathematical and natural science. 12

11. Kant (1900-), Prol, 4: 258; KrV, A762-7631B790-791. 12. Kant (1900~), KrV, Bl28. See also B4-5, where Kant claims that it is easy to show that there are pure a priori judgments in human knowledge, whether scientific or ordinary, and that, -even without appealing to such examples, it is possible to show that pure a priori principles are indispensable for the possibility of experience, which could not derive its "certainty" from anywhere else. At any rate, Kant says, "we can content ourselves with having displayed the pure use of our cognition as a fact [Tatsache] together with its indication [Kennzeichen]." Evidently, no refutation of skepticism is required to establish this fact. I say more about the relevant notion of Factumor TatsaclJe in Chapters 4 and 5.

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So skepticism defines philosophy's task by teaching it to ask transcendental questions. But skepticism is also a problem of the past. Once the mood has changed from despair to hope, no further refutation of skepticism is called for, and Kant's central arguments do not seek to provide one. This attitude goes along with a certain picture of the skeptic's motivation. Skeptics like Hume, Kant thinks, are driven by \eason's interest in selfknowledge. When they find reason's way to its objective apparently blocked, they prefer candid admission of their despair to disingenuous pretense that all is well. Consequently, skepticism i~-at least, so far-an academic problem, a problem that affects those who want to fulfill reason's aspirations by setting metaphysics on the sure path of a science.'? Moreover, there should be no room for skepticism proper-that is, for skeptical despair-after Kant's inauguration of transcendental philosophy. At most, there is room for the deployment of skeptical arguments against philosophy's recurring seduction into transcendent dogmatism by dialectical illusions.!" For Kant recognizes no drive to skeptical doubt as such. There is only the drive to knowledge, which used to get diverted into skepticism, prior to Kant's critical restoration of hope.

3.3 If Kant is successful, then, there ought to be no skepticism after Kant. But of course there is. And some varieties presuppose precisely that Kant's arguments have succeeded. One frequently mentioned possibility is that transcendental idealis~l the conclusion that should be established by Kant's arguments if they arL:uccessful, simply amounts to skepticism. In the next section, I will say more about this possibility, which Kant would certainly want to resist. In addition, the argument of the Clitique of Pure Reason itself leaves open at least the logical possibility of post-Kantian skepticism.P First, recall 13. See Kant (190D-), KrV, Bxxxiv-xxxv: "Through criticism alone can we never sever the very root of materialism,fatalism, atheism, of free-thinking unbelief, of enthusiasm. and superstition. which can become generally injurious, and finally also of idealism and skepticism, which are more dangerous to the schools and can hardly be transmitted to the public." Any attempt to restrain academic freedom in order to protect the public is therefore misguided. argues Kant. 14. See Kant (1900-), KrV, A297-2981B354-355. IS. This is in no way intended as an exhaustive list. And I do not intend here to reconstruct the details of Kant's arguments. I will merely assume standard characterizations of those arguments and. for the sake of this investigation, I will assume the validity-but not the soundness-of the arguments, so characterized.

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Kant's description of his deductive method in "The Discipline of Pure Reason": Through concepts of the understanding ... [pure reason] certainly erects secure principles, but not directly from concepts, but rather always only indirectly through relation of these concepts to something entirely contingent, .namely, possible experience; since if this (something as object of possible experiences) is presupposed, then they are of course apodictically certain, but in themselves they cannot even be cognized a priori (directly) at all ... although [the proposition that everything that happens has Its cause] must be proved, it is called a plinciple, not a theorem because it has the special property that it first makes possible its ground of proof, namely experience, and must always be presupposed in this.l" This is, I think, generally understood as follows: Kant undertakes to show that synthetic a priori principles-such as the principle of causality-are pecessary conditions for the admittedly contingent possibility of experience; since, as a matter of fact, we actually have experience, it follows that the application of the principles is justified. If this interpretation is correct, then the assumption that we actually have experience plays a crucial role in transcendental argumenration.F Were there reason to doubt that we actually have experience, the principles in question would not have been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt, even if Kant's argument that they are conditions for the possibility of experience were accepted as logically valid. Consequently, it is logically possible to accept the argumentation of the Analytic in Kant's first Critique, and yet to doubt the actuality of experience that Kant assumes. In this way, it is possible to be a post-Kantian skeptic.P Moreover, if there were reason 16. Kant (1900-), KrV, A7371B765. 17. Although this is not the place to explore the point, I think it likely that when Kant refers to "something as object of possible experience," he has in mind the sum-total of the materials for possible experience, a finite spatio-temporal version of the ens realissimum. Kant's method could presuppose the actuality of this material sum-total, without presupposing the actuality of expertence itself. On the ens realissimum, see Chapter I; Wood (1978), 55-59; Longuenesse (1995), 521-537. On the role of a finite analogue of the ens realissimum in Kant's transition project, see Friedman (1992a), 308-31I; Forster (2000). 18. It may seem that Kant excludes this possibility in advance, when he adds the Refutation of Idealism to the B-edition of the first Critique. For this is supposed to show, according to B275, that we have experience, not merely imagination, of outer things. However, Kant is concerned here with a "Cartesian skepticism" arising from what he calls Descartes' "problematic idealism": the view that I have immediate, inner experience of my own existence, but only mediated, inferential beliefs about outer objects. Rejection of problematic idealism is already implicit in the argument of the A-edition, but is left implicit precisely because Kant is not primarily concerned with the

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to doubt that experience is so much as possible-say, because of a conflict between two conditions necessary for its possibility-then this would give rise to a still more radical version of post-Kantian skepticism. Remarkably, as I hope to show, all these possibilities for post-Kantian skepticism come to be actualized in the period of Kant's first reception, in the 1780s and 1790s. During that seminal period, it is not unusual for a philosopher who considers himself a Kantian to think that, far from superseding skepticism, Kant has shown how deep a problem it really is, or even that Kant has given rise to a more thoroughgoing skepticism than any hitherto encountered.

3.4 I want first to consider the thesis that transcendental idealism; even if successfully established, amounts to some kind of skepticism. The problem with this thesis is that, as it is typically formulated, it seems to depend on a misinterpretation of Kantian dualism that renders Kant, in effect, preKantian, depriving him of all origtnality." Consequently, it is tempting to dismiss the claim that transcendental idealism amounts to skepticism. If the German idealists are responding to a skepticism based on a misinterpretation of Kant, then their response is, if not doomed, then at least tainted, and difficult to justify against Kantianism. However, 1 will argue that there are genuinely post-Kantian ways of reformulating the claim, so that it does not depend on a misunderstanding of Kant. The locus classicus for the idea that Kant's revolution, if succesSfuI~eads to a new kind of skepticism is a supplement to Jacobi's 1787 bo k of dialogues inspired by Hume.i" This supplement, with its complai t of a --_.~~ ..~'.~~"~--"~~-".~~"--"'--'-~---~-

sort of skepticism it motivates. In any event, the Refutation is not concerned with the post- Kantian skepticism that questions whether we have experience at all. Incidentally, it should also be noted that Kant correctly claims to refute idealism, not to refute skepticism, even of the kind motivated by problematic idealism. For, as he himself points out at A791-7921B819--820, no reductio ad absurdum of a thesis can show its antithesis to be true, as long it remains possible that the antithesis might also be reducible ad absurdum. Kant has not excluded the possibility that empirical realism is in some way absurd, and hence that we are in the skeptical position of having no compelling reason to choose either empirical realism or empirical idealism. 19. Certainly, the Garve-Feder review, which shared the interpretation in question, attributing to Kant the Cartesian view of the mind as an inner realm of mental objects or states, concluded that Kant had contributed nothing new. For a reprint of the review, originally published in Zugabe Ztl dell Gilt£illgischen Allzelgen vongelellrten Sachen (19 January, 1782),40-48, see Landau (1991), 10--17. For a translation, see Sassen (2000). 20. See Jacobi (1983), DHilG, 209-230.

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presupposition without which one cannot enter the critical philosophy but with which one cannot remain within it, is as famous as any reaction to Kant. Yet it is all too often read in total isolation from jacobi's other writings, in isolation even from the text to which it is a supplement. The result is widespread misunderstanding, not only of jacobi's own position, but also, as I hope to show, of the ultimate import of his criticism of Kant. In the supplement on transcendental idealism, Jacobi argues that Kant is tom between two incompatible commitments. On the one hand, Kant is committed to the genuine receptivity of outer sense. Indeed, Kant's talk of sensibility would be meaningless unless he intended "a distinct real intermediary between one real thing and another, an actual means Jrom something to something else," hence unless he presupposed "the objective validity of our perception of objects outside us as things in themselves.?" Without that presupposition.jacobi had found for some time that he could not enter into the Kantian system. For without it he could make no sense of the distinction between sensibility and understanding. On the other hand, Kant is committed to the transcendental idealist doctrine that we know only appearances. Asjacobi puts it, "what we realists call actual objects or things independent of our representations are for the transcendental idealist only internal beings which exhibit nothing at all oj a

thing that may perhaps be there outside us, or to which the appearance may reJer. Rather, these internal beings are merely subjective determinations oj the mind, entirely void of anything truly objective. "22 So jacobi cannot stay within the Kantian system as long as he continues to credit Kant's presupposition of a genuine faculty of outer sense. It is simply impossible, jacobi argues, for Kant to maintain both his realistic commitment to genuine sensibility and his idealism. So Kant faces a dilemma. He must give up one or the other if he is to be consistent. Now, Jacobi is himself a thoroughgoing realist, as he has stated clearly in the main body of the text. 23 So it goes without saying in the supplement that Jacobi himself would recommend realism to Kant. What Jacobi emphasizes in the supplement, for his own dialectical purposes, is the consequence of 21. Jacobi (1983), DHuG, 223. For a later version of the point, made in 1815 when Jacobi had clarified his position and was able to refer to Kant's later works, see jacobi (1983),1815 Vorrede, 21-24, 22. Jacobi. (1983), DHuG, 217. For a later version, see Jacobi (1983), 1815 Vorrede, 34-38, 23, See, for example, jacobi (1983), DHuG, 59·65, where it is argued that the realist must reject the assumption that representations, as determinations of the self, are epistemically prior to knowledge of outer objects, which requires inference.

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rejecting realism to become a consistent transcendental idealist. Someone who grasped that horn of the dilemma would have to profess what Jacobi calls "transcendental ignorance," a thoroughgoing repudiation of knowledge about even the probability of the existence of things outside us in a transcendental sense." This "absolute and unqualified ignorance" would be accompanied by "the strongest idealism that was ever professed," since all that could ever be known would be merely subjective and internal. If one wants to be a consistent transcendental idealist, one "should not be afraid of the objection of speculative egoism. "25 Of c\lurse, Jacobi means to be presenting the Kantian with a reductio ad absurdum. Yet, presumably because his words have been taken out of the context of his realism and, indeed, out of the context of the book in which those words appear, he is often quoted as if he is recommending "speculative egoism."26 Jacobi's criticism of the inconsistency of Kant's transcendental idealism, and his argument that a consistent Kantian idealism would amount not only to skeptical doubt, but to denial of the very possibility of knowledge of external objects, was immensely influential in his own day and is still echoed today.:" However, it is not hard to see that Jacobi is interpreting Kant against Kant's explicit protests, as an idealist akin to Berkeley. Of course, Jacobi is hardly alone. Kant is similarly interpreted, not only in the GarveFeder review that so provoked Kant, but also in much twentieth-century Anglophone literature." Admittedly, Jacobi wrote his supplement before 24, Jacobi (1983), DHI1G, 229. 25, Jacobi (1983), DHI1G, 229. ~ 26. For a recent example, see Collins (1999), 27 (emphasis mine): "Kant does no,t ctually assert any idealist conclusion, which he would do only if he contended that there are n thingsin-themselves but only ideas that seem to be ideas of such things, or if he argued that we cannot know for sure whether there any things-in-themselves in addition to our ideas of such things. These views would amount to a dogmatic or a problematic idealism concerning things-inthemselves. Jacobi seems to adopt the latter position, but Kant himself propounds neither, It is in the context of these understandings that German idealism turns away from Kant's commitment to things-in-themselves." 27. Jacobi may have influenced Schulze (1996), originally published anonymously in 1792, which echoes and develops some of Jacobi's criticisms of Kant, and which throughout neglects the transcendental/empirical distinction and presupposes a Cartesian Kant interpretation. See Chapter 4, Fichte seems to accept Jacobi's view of those he called Kantians, who read Kant literally, but not of Kant himself, as read spiritually. For recent echoes of Jacobi, see Stroud (1984) and Williams (1996),20. 28. See Collins (1999), 153-182, for discussion of the persistence of the Cartesian interpretation, not only in Paton, Kemp Smith, and Strawson, who might acknowledge it, but also in Allison and Pippin, who mean to be offering non-Cartesian interpretations. For a defense of the

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Kant produced the B-edition of the first Critique. But Kant had already published the Prolegomena, and his clarifications there and in the Bvedition did not lead Jacobi, or many more recent Anglophone commentators, to retract the ascription to Kant of a Cartesian conception of the mind as veiled from the external world by its own representations. That ascription has recently been challenged, with great thoroughness and effectiveness, notably by Arthur Collins, who provides alternative ways of reading even the A-edition passages that have seemed Cartesian to jacobi and to many others. jacobi finds these passages so obviously Cartesian that it is sufficient merely to quote them in order to bring out the side of Kant that is incompatible with realism about external objects. For example, at A4911B5l9, Kant characterizes transcendental idealism as follows: "everything intuited in space or time, and hence all objects of an experience possible for us, are nothing but appearances, i.e., mere representations, which, as they are represented, as extended beings or series of alterations, have outside our thoughts no existence grounded in itself." And at AlOl, Kant says: "Appearances are not things in themselves, but rather the mere play of our representations, which in the end come down to determinations of inner sense.'?" No doubt these passages sound Cartesian. Indeed, as Collins notes, at A368 Kant uses almost identical language to describe the Cartesian or problematic idealist, for whom, "it always remains doubtful ... whether ... all the so-called outer perceptions are not a mere play of our inner sense, or whether they stand in relation to actual external objects as their cause." Yet it is in that very context, in the Fourth Paralogism, that Kant explicitly distinguishes his transcendental idealism from the empirical idealism of the Cartesian. Apparently, this distinction is insufficient to prevent jacobi from. drawing some of his most compelling proof-texts from the Fourth Paralogism itself. Indeed, although Kant protests vehemently against the suggestion that he is an empirical idealist, and although he drops some of the apparently damning language (e.g., Al.Ol), he does not drop all of it (e.g., A4911B5l9). He even reuses some of it in the Prolegomena, although that once dominant phenomenalist interpretation, see Van Cleve (I 999), and for illuminating criticism, see Ameriks (2003b). 29. Cited by Jacobi (1983), DRuG, 216-217. Kemp Smith makes clear his Cartesian interpretation of the passage by translating "auf Bestimmungen des inneren Sinnes auslaufen" as "reduce to determinations of inner sense." Jacobi also cites extracts from the Fourth Paralogism (A367380), the Aesthetic (A36), and the A-deduction (A125-126).

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text is meant to refute the charge of empirical ideallsm.P If there is no way to interpret these passages other than the obvious Cartesian way, then Kant is a very confused man. But there is another way. What is at stake, once again, is the interpretation of Kantian dualism." The Cartesian interpretation of transcendental idealism is similar to, but distinct from, Maimon'srnisinterpretation of Kantian dualism discussed in Chapter 1. Maimon misunderstands the character of the distinction to which Kantian dualism commits Kant: he thinks it is a real distinction, like the real distinction between mind and body for which Descartes argues. Jacobi misunderstands the terms between which Kantian dualism distinguishes: he thinks it is a distinction between the inner space of the mind and the outer space of the world of objects, like the distinction to which Descartes is committed. We need, then, to take seriously Kant's distinction between the transcendental and the empirical. Most urgently in this context, we need to take seriously Kant's own remark in the Fourth Paralogism that the expression "outside us" is "unavoidably ambiguous," having both an empirical and a transcendental sense." Indeed, we need to generalize this remark, so that a range of terms, including "inside us" and "representation," are also treated as having both empirical and transcendental senses. Without attempting a full exploration of the range of ambiguous terms in Kant's work, it will suffice here to say something about the difference between 30. See, for example, Kant (1900-), Prol, 4: 337: "The question of whether bodies (as appearances of outer sense) exist outside my thought as bodies in nature can without hesitation be an~wered negatively," For discussion, see Collins (1999), 33, I 31. Collins does not provide an account of Kantian dualism as I have done in Chapt~ I, but he provides invaluable help by providing transcendental readings of passages that one is sorely tempted to read empirically. His transcendental readings are generally compatible with my view of Kantian dualism. However, Collins seems uninterested in asking why Kant writes this way. Indeed, he leaves the impression that Kant just committed an inexplicable tactical error. Collins himself prefers to stick to the empirical sense of idealism and hence to insist that Kant was simply . not an idealist. See, for example, Collins (1999), 2: "Kant is not an idealist, and 'transcendental idealism' is a misleading title in so far as it seems to advertise a thesis that merely corrects the errors of the defective versions of idealism Kant expressly refutes," To my mind, this leaves unexplained the intimacy of the relationship between empirical and transcendental idealism. symbolized by the possibility of expressing them in the same language. If we are to understand Kant's vulnerability to misunderstanding, we must explore the engagement with skepticism that leads him both to distinguish the empirical from the transcendental and to formulate his own response to skepticism in exactly the terms previously used by the empirical idealist, as if to express the truth in the empirical idealist's unacceptable position. 32, Kant (1900- ), KrV, A368.

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the empirical and transcendental senses of the claim that, say, all objects of experience are mere representations. Empirically speaking, to say that all objects of experience are mere rep- . resentations is to make an ontological claim. It is to say that all objects of experience are mental, whether they are mental objects or mental states. Whatever is mental cannot exist outside thought because thought is the essence or medium of the mental. According to some highly influential lines of thought, whatever is mental may exist independently of any nonmental thing and may be individuated solely in terms either of its own intrinsic properties or of the intrinsic properties of the mind of which it is a state. If, however, one says that all objects of experience are representations in the transcendental sense, no such ontological claim is being made, either about the mental status of empirical objects or about their independence from the nonmental. Rather, the claim in its transcendental sense is like the claim that an object has a certain property when viewed from a certain perspective. 3 3 1f I say that a bridge, viewed from my window, is obscured by an intervening building, I am not saying that the bridge in itself has the property of being obscured. Being obscured is not an intrinsic property of the bridge. Nor is it a property that could be explained in terms of the bridge's intrinsic properties, whatever they may be. Being obscured is extrinsic or relational.?" It follows that being obscured is also not an intrinsic property of my mind. It is, rather, a perspectival property, a relational property of a specific kind, which cannot exist without the perspective in question, and which therefore could not exist if there were no minds capable of occupying that perspective. Now, the fact that a perspectival property cannot exist "outside my thoughts" in the sense just explained does not 33. See Collins (1999), 37--45, from whom the bridge example is drawn. The analogy between transcendental idealism and ordinary perspectival claims helps to explain Kant's famous invocation of Copernicus. For Copernicus's revolution depends upon the insight that observations may have unobserved conditions, hence that it may be harder than we realize to distinguish apparent from real motions, which is not to say that apparent motions are mental. See Ewing (1950), 16. 34. See Chapter 1 on the interpretation of a thing in itself as an ens per se, a thing that is what it is in virtue of its intrinsic properties. I argued that there is a dimension of Kant's conception of a thing in itself that preserves this traditional metaphysical view, although there is also more to Kant's conception than that. For present purposes, the important point is that-as Kant argues on the basis of his Newtonian view of space, time, and causality-one can show that something is perceived as an appearance, not as a thing in itself, if one can show that it is perceived through irreducibly relational properties.

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entail that the property is mental, let alone that it may exist or be individuated independently of any non mental thing. Of course, Kant's transcendental claim is not exactly like ordinary perspectival claims. Ordinarily, we have access to a variety of perspectives. If 1 view the bridge from elsewhere, it is not obscured. But Kant's argument is that all human beings occupy the same transcendental perspective-that there are conditions of our experience to which all empirical properties are relative-and that no alternative perspective in that sense is available to us. None of the empirical properties we ascribe to things .are intrinsic properties of those things, or properties of things in themselves. For every possible empirical property is given to us humans in space and/or time, so thatas we have seen in Chapter I-it does not so much as co-vary with any intrinsic property. Still, the analogy remains: Kant's transcendental claim does not entail that all empirical properties are mental, let alone that they are intrinsic properties of mind, independent of the nonmental. So the perspectival character of transcendental idealism is very different from the ontological character of empirical idealism. Now, ifJacobi's influential claim, that consistent transcendental idealism entails "absolute and unqualified ignorance" of external things, depends on the mistaken ascription to Kant of empirical idealism, then the claim-must surely be rejected. According to Kant's transcendental idealism, we can know external things, but we cannot know them as they are in themselves. For there is a perfectly legitimate, empirical sense in which the objects known to us by means of the senses are outside us. It is knowledge understood in a specific way that is denied to us, but this denial seems very ~if­ Ierent from skeptical doubts or denials with respect to knowledge as slJ~h, especially since the knowledge denied to us is not, Kant argues, a kirtd to which we lay claim within the discourse of experience. So it seems that Jacobi has not led us to a species of post-Kantian skepticism. Moreover, if the German idealists misinterpret Kant's transcendental idealism as empirical idealism, and then respond to a skepticism they take to follow from Kant's conclusion, then their project is tainted. For even if they give an interesting response to empirical idealism, they will have missed Kant's fundamental contribution to the question of skepticism. Indeed, if one thinks of the German idealists as responding to skepticism by rejecting the notion of things in themselves in the empirical sense, then one will take them to be extreme subjectivists whose response to skepticism is interesting only to the extent that it is interesting to see how far intelligent people may be led into absurdity.

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Collins seems to think that the German idealists just are empirical idealists and that their view arises, at least in part, from the misinterpretation of Kant that he refutes." Ameriks introduces more subtlety into the discussion. He thinks that Reinhold not only reads Kant as an empirical idealist hut also is an empirical idealist; that Fichte reads Kant as an empirical idealist and thinks that there is no alternative within theoretical philosophy, but that Fichte himself hopes to avoid empirical idealism within practical philosophy, on the grounds that empirical realism is presupposed bythe demands of morality; meanwhile, Hegel reads Kant as an empirical idealist but is not an empirical idealist himself. 36 Without entering into the details of these interpretive issues, I want to say enough about them to forestall the charge that the skepticism to which German idealists respond is primarily empirical idealist and arises from a misinterpretation of Kant. In my view, Reinhold may be said to interpret Kant's transcendental idealism as empirical idealism, for reasons that I will give in Chapter 4. But this is because Reinhold misses the significance of the transcendental/empirical distinction, which is precisely the point of German idealist criticisms of his pioneering attempt at systematization. With respect to the others, I will say only that, first, Ameriks is correct to find that neither Fichte nor Hegel-nor, for that matter, Schelling-is an empirical idealist; and, second, we need to distinguish between the way in which Fichte and Schelling interpret "the Kantians"-that is, those fol... lowers of Kant who are not sympathetic to German idealism-and the way in which they interpret Kant himself. Before Kant's repudiation in 1799, they assume that Kant himself is not a "Kantian." After the repudiation, thus in all ofHegel's published writings, they are forced to conclude that Kant is a "Kantian." But they still think that their own versions of idealism, 35. See Collins (l999t 27: "Kant does not actually assert any idealist conclusion, which he would do only if he contended that there are no things..in..themselves but only ideas that seem to be ideas of such things, or ifhe argued that we cannot know for sure whether there any thingsin-themselves in addition to our ideas of such things. These views would amount to a dogmatic or a problematic idealism concerning things-in-themselves. jacobi seems to adopt the latter position, but Kant himself propounds neither. It is in the context of these understandings that German idealism turns away from Kant's commitment to things-in-themselves." Collins does an excellent job of reinterpreting Kantian passages that one can feel compelled to read as espousing a Cartesian conception of the mind, hence as espousing pre-Kantian empirical idealism, But he seems to have no reservations about attributing the pre-Kantian, Cartesian conception not only to Jacobi, who explicitly rejects it, but also to German idealists whose apparently pre-Kantian fonnulations may also be reinterpreted in the way Collins reinterprets Kant himself, and who may thus be seen as the post-Kantians they explicitly profess to be. See Collins (1999), 25, 161, 180, 36. Ameriks (2000a), 23-24, 107, 110, 173-174, 194,276,340.

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which seek to be at the same time empirically realistic, represent the true implications of Kant's work, regardless of whether Kant acknowledges those implications. In any event, 1want to suggest that ifJacobi's criticism of Kant is situated within the context of the criticism of philosophy developed in his work as a whole, then that criticism may be reformulated in' an adequately postKantian manner. At the end of his life, Jacobi characterizes his earlier response to Kant as follows: The Dialogue On Idealism and Realism, which was published a year earlier than Kant's Critique of Practical Reason, considers only the first, theoretical, part of his system. It is objected that that first part leads to nihilism, and that it does so with such an all-devastating power that no rearguard intervention could recoup what had been lost. It was lost once and for all.37 1 suggest that jacobi's early criticism of Kant be understood within the context of his general argument that philosophy as such leads to nihilism-a term that Jacobi first popularized within philosophical discussion." jacobi is very far from being a systematic philosopher. hi fact, he is the seminal critic of systematic philosophy as such, who demands a return from philosophical attempts at rational justification and explanation to prephilosophical, nonsystematic, ordinary, rationaljatrh, It is hard to find clear lines of argument in jacobi, although, according to his own views, the claim that philosophy leads necessarily to nihilism ought to be expressible in clear and compelling arguments, unlike his own way of escaping nihilism. ~ere 1 will present, in broad outline, a reconstructed line of argument tha is rooted in Jacobi's texts, although it is never presented in just this way. 9 On his own account, Jacobi's intellectual development is colored by an extraordinary experience at the tender age of eight or nine: That extraordinary thing was a representation of endless duration, quite independent of any religious concept. At the said age, when I was pondering on eternity a parte ante, it suddenly came over me with such clarity, and seized me with such violence, that I gave out a loud cry and fell into a kind of swoon. A movement in me, quite natural, forced me to revive 37. Jacobi (1983),1815 Vorrede, 19. 38. Jacobi does not use the term nihilism until 1799, but he speaks of the threat of annihilation already in 1789. See Jacobi (1998) 1, ULS (1789), 1: 216, 258n. On the history of the concept of nihilism, see Suss (1974), Poggeler (1974), and Gillespie (1995). 39. See Franks (2000).

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the same representation as soon as I came to myself, and the result was a state of unspeakable despair. The thought of annihilation, which had always been dreadful to me, now became even more dreadful, nor could I bear the vision of an eternal forward duration any better. . . . I graduallymanaged not to be afflicted by this trial so often, and finally managed to free myself from it altogether ... This representation has often seized me again since then, despite the care that I constantly take to avoid it. I have reason to suspect that I can arbitrarily evoke it in me any time I want; and I believe that it is in my power, were I to do so repeatedly a few times, to take my life within minutes by this means."? Apparently, what makes the young jacobi faint is the vision of an infinite series of temporal moments. But he finds no relief in the thought of a finite temporal series that simply ends, bordering on nothingness. He is at once horrified and fascinated, both by the idea of an infinite series and by the '"'idea of a finite series. Originally occasioned by the thought of a series of temporal moments, this experience of dread seems later to have become associated with the idea of a series of reasons or explanatory conditions. Thus, as though his very life depends upon it, jacobi seeks a stable standpoint, one based on a finn foundation, not one that recedes forever or somehow balances on nothing. Hence the title page of his Spinoza-book bears the motto "0£ ftOL nov " In contrast, the esoteric Platonism that Schlosser finds in Plato's Seventh Letter emphasizes the feelings of its initiates. Those who attain immediate intuition thereby experience what Schlosser calls a presentiment (Ahnung) of the veiled goddess Isis.56 Although Schlosser never says so explicitly, he implies that this feeling, experience, or presentiment will inspire the initiate and effect a genuine moral improvement. Now Schlosser gives no clear account of how Seventh Letter esotericism improves its adherents, nor does he address the questions raised by the fact that only a few people are capable of initiation: Seventh Letter esotericism is hardly likely to have any moral effect whatsoever on the masses it excludes. But what stands out from Schlosser's attack on Kant is the claim that Kant's critical philosophy fails to engage our feelings and therefore cannot motivate us to morality. It is the desire to respond to this claim that leads Kant to the surprising thesis that it is the critical philosophy that has discovered an inexplicable secret, a secret that cannot be told but that can be felt. Kant's account of this "true secret" turns out to be another version of the Deduction of Freedom. Thus Kant first characterizes what he takes to be the universal response to examples of the kind adduced in the second Critique: "Now every man finds in his reason the idea of duty, and trembles on hearing its brazen voice, when inclinations arise in him, which tempt him to disobedience towards it. He is persuaded that, even though the latter all collectively conspire against it. the majesty of the law, which his own reason prescribes to him, must yet unhesitatingly outweigh them all, and that his will is also capable of this.'?" He then raises what he takes to be the key question: "What is it in me which brings it about that I can sacrifice the innermost allurements of my instincts, and all wishes that

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proceed from my nature, to a law which promises me no compensating advantage, and threatens no loss on its violation; a law, indeed, which I respect the more intimately, the more strictly it ordains, and the less it offers for doing so?" This question is unanswerable, and therein lies the mystery as well as the moral benefit of Kant's philosophy: Byastonishment at the magnitude and sublimity of the inner disposition . in mankind, and at the same time the impenetrability of the mystery that veils it (for the answer, it is freedom, would be tautological, since that is precisely what constitutes the mystery), this question arouses the whole soul. We can never grow weary of giving attention to it, and admiring in itself a power that yields to no power in Nature; and this admiration is simply the feeling produced by Ideas, and if, besides the teaching of morality in school and pulpit, the presentation of this mystery were made a special and oft-repeated topic of instruction, this feelingwould penetrate deep into the soul, nor would it fail to make men morally better. 58 Kant's point here is that I can cognize my freedom, but only through first person singular consideration of the normative force of the moral law compared with that of all my inclinations. Consequently, I can cognize the actuality of freedom, although I cannot comprehend what makes it possible. It is just here, as he goes on to say, that we find what Archimedes sought: a fixed point to which reason can apply its lever, in order by its principle to move the human will, even when the whole of Nature resists and this without resting it either upon the present or a future world, but merely upon its inner Idea of freedom, which lies there as a sure foundation through the unshakable moral law. This, then, is the secret which can become possible tofeel only after slow development of the concepts of the understanding, and of carefully tested principles and thus only through work. It is given, not empirically (proposed to reason for solution), but a priori (as actual insight within the bounds of our reason), and even extends rational knowledge up to the super-sensible, but only in a practical respect: not, say, by a feeling, which purports to be the basis of knowledge (the mystical), but by a dear cognition which acts upon feeling (the moral)."? In other words, through consideration of my response to cases in which duty opposes all my inclinations, I find the standpoint beyond the sensible world from which reason can move the human will in a way that manifests 58. Kant (1900- ), VTP, 8: 402-463. 59. Kant (1900- ), VTP, 8: 403.

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itself sensibly through the feeling of respect for the moral law. To bring myself into this condition is to bring myself into the condition appropriate for moral action, so it is morally improving. Although this procedure is first person singular, it is available to every human being and hence universally valid. Unlike the divine spark claimed by Schlosser as innate to the few, the capacity for respect-and hence for practical cognition of the supersensible-involves labor, not superior birth. On this which coheres well with the Fichtean interpretation of the Deduction of Freedom developed above, Kant provides us with an appropriately critical way of construing the key terms of esotericist tradition. Thus Kant joins Schlosser in worshipping the veiled goddess, Isis, but identifies her with the moral law, Kant, too, the possibility of a "presentiment" (Ahnung) of the goddess, which he characterizes as being "guided by moral feeling to concepts of duty, before having yet been able to make clear to oneself the principles on which this feeling depends. "60 Thus Kant offers an account of the obscurity of his moral philosophy, which he diagnoses in terms of the mystery of practical freedom itself. This obscurity is compatible with universal validity, but it puts Kant in a position with respect to Schlosser and other opponents that is quite unlike the position of someone who wants to convince others about some theoretical principle that is synthetic a priori. If someone resists, say, the claim that the causal law is a synthetic a priori principle of the possibility of experience, then Kant should be able to show her, if he is right, that she already presupposes what she does not want to accept and that she would be contradicting herself by rejecting it. Although people frequently contradict themselves, is a sense in which they are not free to do so once the contradiction has been pointed out. But, as Kant says at the end of his response to Schlosser: « 'if,' as Fcntenelle said on another occasion, 'Monsieur N. is still quite determined to believe in the oracle, nobody can prevent him.' "61 In other words, there is a sense in which Schlosser is free to reject Kant's claims about freedom, even if they are true. For it follows from those claims that we are all free to be heteronomous, to repudiate through individual Willhiir the law that Wille legislates to itself.62 In broad terms, the deductive strategy developed by Kant in the second 60. Kant (1900- ), VTP, 8: 405. 61. Kant (1900- ), VTP, 8: 406. 62. Kant draws this distinction in his 1793 Religion Within the Boundalies of Mere Reason. Roughly,'Wille is the will considered as rational agency, whereas Willkl1r is the will considered as the power to choose, here is capable of irrationality. For useful discussion, see Meebas (1982).

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Critique may be described as follows. By means of an act or Tathandlung, an absolute first principle-s-in this case, the moral law self-legislated by Wille-is demonstrated not only as normatively supreme but also as effective. It thereby becomes the ratio cognoscendi of the absolute conditionin this case, the practical freedom of Willkur-without whose actualization the principle could not be effective. This absolute condition is the ratio essendi of the absolute first principle. The relationship between the absolute condition and the absolute principle is circular, yet the circle is virtuous because the argument is not a linear transition frompremise to conclusion, but rather the taking up of a standpoint: a first person singular transformation of the subject's self-consciousness, in which I come to see my agency not only as WilIkiir but also as Wille-as pure practical reason. At the same time, however, because this transformation is a free activity of the subject, the deduction is peculiarly open to free rejection.

5.4 Having interpreted Kant's Deduction of Freedom in a way suggested but not developed by Fichte-not as appeal to a fact of consciousness that avoids skeptical issues, but rather as the solicitation of a first person singular, pure act or Tathandlung that manifests itself sensibly and that enables a response to skepticism-I now turn to the implications of this deductive strategy for the German idealist project. On the one hand, Kant himself connects the Deduction of Freedom to the idea of the ens realissimum, from which German idealists hope to deduce the categories that are both necessary for and determinately applied in experience. On the other hand, what Kant says about the connection suggests that such a deduction is impossible. In the second Critique, while discussing the postulates of pure practical reason, Kant explains that, through these postulates, the moral law and the highest good "lead to concepts that speculative reason could indeed present as problems but could never solve."63 His third example is the concept of God: "As for that which speculative reason had to think but to leave undetermined as mere transcendental ideal, the theological concept of the original being, it furnishes significance to this (for practical purposes, i.e., as a condition of the possibility of the object of a will determined by that law), as the supreme principle of the highest good in an intelligible world, by 63. Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 132.

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means of moral lawgiving accompanied by power in it."64 One might take this to mean that the basic ideas of rational theology are now to be discarded, replaced by new and unrelated practical ideas. But, in a footnote to his response to Schlosser, Kant notes that the Deduction of Freedom and the subsequent derivation of the postulates of God and immortality amounts to a reworking of the transcendental ideal from a practical point of view: "The transcendental concept of God, as the ens realissimum, cannot be circumvented in philosophy, however abstract such a concept may be; for it pertains to the union and at the same time the elucidation, of evetything concrete that may subsequently enter into applied theology and theory of religion."?" Kant goes on to argue that the ens realissimum must be thought not as the sum-total, but rather as the ground of all realities. This is a familiar point that Kant has made both in his pre-critical writings and in the first Critique. Here, however, the discussion takes an unfamiliar turn. Kant argues, not only that to think God as the sum-total of all realities leads to illicit anthropomorphism, but also that God can be adequately thought as the ground of all realities onlyfrom the practical point of view:

But if I frame to myself the concept of the ens realissimum as the ground of all reality, I am saying that God is the being who contains the ground of everything in the world for which we men have need to suppose an understanding (e.g., everything purposive therein); he is the being from whom the existence of all worldly being originates, not out of the necessity of his nature' (per emanaiionem), but according to a circumstance for which we men are obliged to suppose afree will, in order to make the possibility thereof intelligible to us. Now here what the nature of the supreme being may be (objectively)can be posited as wholly inscrutable to us, and quite beyond the sphere of any theoretical knowledge possible to us, and yet reality still be (subjectively) left to these concepts in a practical respect (with regard to the course of life); in relation to which, also, an analogy of the divine understanding and will to that of man and his practical reason can alone be assumed, notwithstanding that in a theoretical sense there is absolutely no analogy between them. From the moral law which our own reason authoritatively prescribes to us, and not from any theory of the nature of things-in-themselves, there now proceeds the concept of God which practical pure reason constrains us to make for ourselves. 66 64. Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 133. 65. Kant (1900- ), VTP, 8: 399n. 66. Kant (190QL ), VTP,8:400-401n.

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This idea-that the absolutely infinite realities which may be ascribed to the ens realissimum without fear of anthropomorphism are practical realities-is already mentioned "in passing» in a footnote to the second Critique: Although one ascribes to God various attributes the quality of which is found appropriate to creatures as well except that in him they are raised to the highest degree, e.g., power, knowledge, presence, goodness, and so forth, there are still three that are ascribed to God exclusively and yet without the addition of greatness, and all of them are moral: he is the only holy, the only blessed, the only wise, because these concepts already imply the absence of limitation. According to the order of these attributes he is also the holy lawgiver (and creator), the beneficent governor (and preserver), and the just judge-three attributes which include everything by which God is the object of religion and in conformity with which the metaphysical perfections are added of themselves in reason." These absolutely infinite practical realities, then, are appropriate for a progressive Metaphysical Deduction from the idea of the ensrealissimum. However, it would seem impossible to deduce categories capable of theoretical use from the idea thus characterized. In fact, however, there could be hope of employing the deductive strategy of Kant's Deduction of Freedom in order to deduce categories for theoretical as well as practical use, but only if practical and theoretical philosophy are not as separate as they are in Kant's critical philosophy-only if, say, there is an essential moment of practical freedom in theoretical cognition. This is exactly the point of Fichte's characterization, not only of consciousness of the moral law, but also of the pure self-consciousness involved in theoretical cognition, as both Tathandlung and intellectual intuition. These are hardly promising claims. A deduction of the categories from the idea of the ens realissimum would have to retrace God's intellectual intuition of His absolutely infinite realities, which ground the sum-total of possible reality. But how may we humans participate in divine cognition? It is central to Kant's view of human finitude that our cognition is discursive and that we do not have intellectual intuition, of which only God could be capable, of which we cannot even conceive. I do not think that German idealists simply deny the finitude of human beings, or even reject the Kantian idea that this finitude involves the unavoidable use of concepts in cognition. As Holistic Monists, however, they

_ -_

- - - _..._ - ....- .._ -....

..

67. Kant (1900- ), KpV. 5: BIn. See Fichte (1964- ). VKO,Ill: 135-137.

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reconfigure the relationship between finite humans and the infinite yet immanent God. To explain the German idealist use of the notion of intellectual intuition, I will consider first the claim that consciousness of the moral law is intellectual intuition, and then the claim that intellectual intuition is a transcendentally necessary condition of all consciousness, including theoretical cognition. I will then consider the relationship within Fichte's jena Wtssenschciftslehre between these two intellectual intuitions.

5.5 In his Second Introduction, Fichte says: "Our consciousness of the categorical imperative is undoubtedly immediate, but it is not a form of sensory consciousness. In other words, it is precisely what I call 'intellectual intuition'. »6B An earlier passage suggests that Fichte understands consciousness of the moral Jaw in the way that I interpreted earlier: By exhibiting the ethical law within us ... the I becomes characterized as something absolutely active. Our intuition of self-activity and freedom has its foundation in our consciousness of this law, which is unquestionably not a type of consciousness derived from anything else, but is instead an immediate consciousness. Here I am given to myself, by myself, as something that is obliged to be active in a certain way. Accordingly, I am given to myself, by myself, as "active in an overall sense" or "as such." I possess life within myself and draw it from myself. It is only through the medium of the ethical law that I catch a glimpse of myself; and insofar as I view myself through this medium, I necessarily view myself as selfactive. In this wayan entirely alien ingredient, viz., my consciousness of my own real efficacy, arises for me within a consciousness that otherwise would be nothing hut a consciousness of a particular sequence of my representations.r"

Fichte accords epistemic priority to the moral law, through the immediate consciousness of which we achieve intuition of self-activity and freedom. He also emphasizes that this consciousness can be transformative, for through it "1 catch a glimpse of myself," which can only mean that, apart from this consciousness, I do not know myself as 1 am in myself. ~-~"--~-~"--~"--~-

- - - - - - - - - - - - - _...- - _..- -

68. Fichte (l964~ ), VDWL, 1/4: 225. 69. Fichte (1964-- ), VDWL, 1/4: 219.

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Moreover, he says that I thereby become conscious "of my own real efficacy." Does this mean that I become conscious of a capacity or-as in the interpretation of Kant's Deduction of Freedomproposed above-of an actualization of a capacity? Tha't it means the latter is suggested by the following passages: One becomes immediately conscious of one's freedom through the deed [dureh die Tat], since one self-actively tears oneself loose from a state of indecision, and posits a definite purpose, because one posits it, especially if this purpose runs contrary to all our inclinations, and is nevertheless chosen for duty's sake."? Desire applies to all finite reason. Anyone who wants desire wants to be released from consciousness.

to

be released from

We cannot consider any finite, rational, conscious being to be holy, { [for] every finite, rational creature is conscious of a desire that strives in opposition to the above-mentioned law.... The union of pure willing and desire produces the feeling of an "ought," of an inner, categorical drive toward acting.11 In these passages, Fichte suggests that consciousness of freedom is attained

through an act-in particular, through an act opposed to all my inclinations, or to the desire that strives in all finite beings against the law. The negation of this desire, which Kant calls self-conceit, "produces the feeling of an 'ought' "-the feeling, that is, of respect for the moral law. This negation is, then, the act through which consciousness of my freedom becomes possible. But why give the designation "intellectual intuition" to this act that enables consciousness of my "self-activity," "freedom" and "real efficacy"? In brief, because it plays a role within practical cognition that is strictly analogous to the role played by sensible intuition, both pure and empirical, within theoretical cognition. It is the immediate relation to actuality that converts a mere linkage of concepts-"a particular sequence of my representations"-into a genuine cognition. As we have already seen, Kant himself is well aware of this analogy of roles. Yet he denies that the actuality in question is intellectual intuition. There is a striking example in this passage: 70. Fichte 0964- ),55, V5: 131. 71. Fichte (1964-- ), Wl.nm, [Vl2: 136.

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Since in all precepts of pure practical reason it is only a question of the decision of the will and not of the natural conditions (of practical ability) for achieving its purpose, it thereby happens that the practical concepts a priori in relation to the supreme principle of freedom immediately become cognitions, not needing to wait upon intuitions in order to acquire a meaning. This happens for the noteworthy reason that they themselves produce the reality of that to which they refer (the disposition of the will)~an achievement which is in no way the business of theoretical concepts.'? Kant is fully aware of the analogy between the role played by the acts whereby practical precepts produce the will-determinations to which they refer and the role played by intuitions in theoretical cognition. It is because of this awareness that he feels the need to deny that these acts are intellectual intuitions. But what is the justification for the denial? It is simply, Pichte says, that Kant already has an established usage of the term intellec-

tual intuition: In Kantian terminology every intuition is directed at some being (a posited being, something fixed and enduring). Accordingly, "intellectual intuition" would, in this case, have to be a consciousness of anon-sensible being, an immediate consciousness of the thing in itself, and indeed a consciousness made possible by thought alone. I.e., it would amount to a creation of the thing in itself simply from the very concept of the same (similar to the way in which those who demonstrate the existence of God from the mere concept thereof must view God's existence as nothing more than a consequence of their own thinking.F? But Pichte has no room for this usage. His idealism is a Two Aspects, not a Two Essences view: "all being is sensible being. "74 Moreover, his Two Aspects idealism is committed to Holistic Monism, so he does not regard the ens realissimum as a being, but rather as the immanent principle of the totality of possible beings. Consequently, there is no reason why he should not use the term intellectual intuition where it seems appropriate: "The intellectual intuition of which the Wissenschciftslehre speaks is not directed toward any sort of being whatsoever; instead it is directed at an acting ... "75

72.. 73. 74. 75.

Kant (1900- ), KpV, 5: 67. Fichte (1964- ), YOWL, V4: 224-225. Fichte (1964- ), YOWL, V4: 225. Pichte (1964- ), YOWL, II4: 225.

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Consciousness of the moral law, and thereby of my individual freedom to obey or disobey that law, involves both immediacy-in the senses of unconditionality discussed above-and singularity-of the individual Willkar. Immediacy and singularity are the two distinguishing marks of intuition, while this consciousness is a priori and involves opposition to all inclinations or sensible sources of motivation. So, if the term intellectual intuition has no preexisting usage within German idealism and there is therefore no confusion to prevent, why not say that consciousness of the moral law involves intellectual intuition of my Ireedomj" Fichte also speaks of what Kant calls "pure consciousness"-or, better, "pure self-consciousness"-as intellectual intuition. What case may be made for this? It is often said that Fichte conflates the necessary capacity for selfconsciousness with the necessary actuality of self-consciousness."? Certainly, Fichte insists on an actual self-consciousness conditioning every act of consciousness. Although Kant famously says that "The 'I think' must be capable of accompanying all of my representations.f" Fichte paraphrases the point as follows: "as Kant puts it: All of my representations must be capable of being accompanied by the 'I think' and must be thought of as accompanied thereby."? Why? Note first that Fichte speaks about what is required for consciousness. However, "consciousness" is a notoriously slippery term, which can contrast with "not being conscious" in the sense of carelessness or negligence, or with "unconscious" in the psychoanalyst's sense or in the anaesthetist's, and so on. Rather than assuming that we know in advance what the term consciousness means, we should look at how Fichte uses the term in the context of his philosophical project. Since Fichte's aspiration is to give an 76. I note that Rawls (2000), 253-272, gives an account of the Factum of reason within his interpretation of Kant's moral philosophy as constructivist, and that he compares construction in the relevant sense with mathematical construction. See, [or example, 238. Although Rawls contrasts constructivism with what he calls rational intuitionism, he does not consider the Fichtean possibility that morality could involve intellectual intuition. (It was through Rawls's lectures at Harvard in the late 19805 and early 1990s that I first came to see the importance of the Factum of reason.) 77. See, for example, Castaneda (1990), 156 n.5. 78. Kant (1900-· ), KrV, B131. 79. Fichte (1964- ), VDWL, I/4: 253. Henrich (l992b), 50, suggests that KrV B132 may support Fichte's reading, since Kant speaks there of pure apperception as "generating the representation 'J think.' •

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account of rational agency in general, the most charitable interpretation is the following: an act or state is conscious, in Fichte's sense, if it is accessible to the rational agency and the deliberation of the agent performing that act or in that state. Like Kant, Fichte thinks that some acts or states are bewusstlos or unconscious. These may have representational content, but their content is inaccessible to me as a rational agent. 8 0 On this construal of Fichtean consciousness, the Kantian thesis may be interpreted as follows: if I am to employ any representational content inmy rational deliberation and agency, that content must be capable of being immediately ascribed to me. For example, if I am to make use of the perceived fact that an obstacle is obstructing my path of motion, then it is insufficient that I be in an informational state representing that fact. I must also be able to access that information and to relate it to my actual motion and to my desire to reach a certain destination. If I am to respond rationally to the situation, I must be able to think of my course of action, my desire, as obstructed-I must be able to think of the obstacle as an obstacle for me. That the required capacity is for immediate self-ascription becomes clear from work by Wittgenstein, Hector-Neri Castaneda, Peter Geach, and G.E.M. Anscombe." Suppose, for example, that Fichte's path of motion is 80. See, for example, Pichte (1964· ), YOWL, 1/4: 226-227, where Fichte distinguishes between conceptualized and unconceptualized intuitions. which are not conscious states in his sense because we become aware of them only through philosophical inference. See also Fichte (1964- ). VDWL, !V/l; 196: "Our opinion on the matter is this: to be sure. there are represen.. tations which one can call obscure or without consciousness. One only arrives at conceptions of them insofar as one infers their presence from something that is actually present. These obscure representations are called intuitions." Thus [ disagree with the suggestion made by Ameriks that Fichte has "forgotten" Kant's notion of representations that are "nothing to me," and that Pichte is committed to the view that there can be no representation without consciousness. See Ameriks (2000a), 239. 250 n.38. This suggestion underlies Arneriks's unsympathetic discussion of Fichte's view of self-positing. 81. Wittgenstein (1958), 66-68, points out that it is impossible, when making a statement involving use of HI as subject," to misidentify the person about whom one is speaking as the subject because these uses do not depend on the identification of any person as the subject. In later terminology. such statements are immune to error through misidentification because they are unmediated by identification. Castaneda develops the point in the idiom of analytic philosophy of language, arguing that the indirect reflexive is irreducible to the direct reflexive and, indeed. that the first-person pronoun is irreducible to any other semantic device. See the articles collected in Castaneda (1999). Geach (1972),128·129, observes that the peculiarities of tile first-person pro, noun may also be seen in certain third-person statements, which involve what he calls "an aratio obliqua proxy for the first-person pronoun of oratio recta." These points are famously deployed by Anscombe (1975), who offers, in effect, the following modus tallens: "I," the characteristic expression of self-consciousness, has the ontological priority and hence the irreducibility noted by Cas-

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obstructed by a carelessly abandoned pile of books-say, the collected works of Kant. If Fichte is to respond rationally to the situation, it is not sufficient that he able to think of 1: G. Fichte, or of "the first great postKantian,' or even of "this person here," as obstructed, even if those designations in fact refer to him. He must also be able to think of]. G. Fichte, or of "the first great post-Kantian," or even of "this person here," as himself. Since immediate self-reference is irreducible to any other variety of reference, it follows that immediate self-ascription is irreducible to any other variety of ascription. Any content that I employ in ~y rational deliberation and agency must be capable of being immediately ascribed to me. If I were capable of ascribing some content only mediately to myself, the content would not be accessible to me as a rational agent." Still, why should Fichte think that the capacity for immediate selfascription requires some sort of actual self-consciousness that conditions my rationally accessible representationsi'" Because, I suggest, Fichte holds-along with many contemporary analytic philosophers-that capacities and, more generally, possibilities cannot be metaphysically basic, but must be grounded in actualities. As Nelson Goodman put it: "the peculiarity of dispositional predicates is that they seem to be applied to things in virtue of possible rather than actual occurrences-and possible occurrences are ... no more admissible as unexplained elements than are occult capacities.t''" Fichte makes the point in his own way, as a claim about our taneda, since, regarded as a referential device, it is both guaranteed to refer; and guaranteed to refer to that to which it purports to refer; if "I" is a referential device, then it could only refer to a Cartesian ego, for no entity of any other kind could guarantee reference in the relevant way; therefore, "I" is not a referential device, and the self-consciousness it characteristically expresses is not consciousness of an entity called "the self." 82. See, for example, Shoemaker (1996), 16-17: "As recent writers have noted, one of the distinctive features of first-person belief is the role it plays in the explanation of behavior. Having a genuine first-person belief, of the sort one expresses by saying "I,· is not merely a matter of believing something of what is in fact oneself. To use David Kaplan's example, if I merely believe of the person I in fact am that his pants are on fire (I see someone in the mirror with his pants on lire, but do not realize that it is me), this will not influence my behavior in the way that the belief I would express by saying "My pants are on fire!" would. It seems reasonable to hold that part of what makes a belief a belief about the person who has it (in the way beliefs expressed by first-person sentences are about the speaker) is the fact that it plays this distinctive role in the determination of action." 83. See Ameriks (2000), 250-255, discussing Neuhauser (1990), 68-102, for the argument that the requirement for a constant and actual self-consciousness is unreasonably strong. Ameriks assumes, however, that Fichte is committed to the constancy of this self-consciousness throughout every representational state. See n.80. 84. Goodman (1965), 42.

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capacity to posit things: "A merely possihle efficacy, or an efficacy in general is only posited through abstraction from a certain [efficacy), or from all actual [efficacies); but, before something can be abstracted from, it must be posited.t''" If this claim is combined with the claim explored earlier-that immediate self-ascription is irreducible to any mediated self-ascription-then we will need to find an actual ground for the capacity to immediately selfascribe. We might attribute to Fichte the following line of thought: if the capacity for immediate self-ascription is irreducibly a capacity Ior immediacy, then the actual ground for that capacity must already involve immediacy. On this view, I am able to produce thoughts of this irreducibly peculiar kind because I am merely making explicit an implicit actuality that is already of this irreducibly peculiar kind. Any other explanation of the capacity for immediate self-ascription will have to explain where the irreducible immediacy comes from. We are now prepared to make sense of Fichte's central claim: that the immediate actuality that grounds the capacity for attaching the "I think" is "an act of self-positing as positing."86 What Fichte means is that the immediate actuality is an existential commitment with respect to oneself as the agent engaged in making existential commitments, predications, or inferences. Unlike other existential commitments, this one is necessarily presupposed by the capacity for rational agency. Any other existential commitment must presuppose existential commitment by the rational agent to herself as the positing agent. Thus the act of self-positing has an absoluteness surpassing that of any other existential commitment: positing myself as positing is the condition of any other act of positing, but it is itself unconditioned by any other act of positing. Attending to the literal meaning of "setzent-:« commonplace German word meaning "to place" or "to locate"-I propose that we construe Fichtean positing as locating within what analytic philosophers call the space of reasons." Thus, to posit a thing relatively or conditionally is to specify the location of that thing within the omnitudo realitatis, understood as a network of possible (existential, predicative, and inferential) commitments-a location that may be occupied only by a possible thing of a 85 Ficlue (1964- ), GNR, 113: 34l. 86. Fichte (1964- ), 1/4: 276. 87. See 354-359 below. Wittgenstein uses the term logical space, while "the space of reasons" is associated with Sellars and those influenced by him, notably Brandorn and McDowell. Pippin (2000) also uses the notion in his discussion of Fichte.

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specific kind. To posit a thing absolutely or unconditionally is to undertake the relevant commitments by affirming that a particular thing of that kind exists in an actual spatio-temporal location." Both sorts of positing necessarily involve self-positing as self-positing: the actual location of the positing agent within the space of reasons as a positing agent, and the capacity of the positing agent to locate herself within space and time. To understand why Fichte wants to characterize self-positing as selfpositing in terms of intellectual intuition, it is helpful to consider a question raised by Geach and answered differently by John ferry and David Lewis. After distinguishing a third-person indirect reflexive proxy ("he himself") for the first-person pronoun, to be used in statements ascribing de se thoughts and utterances, Geach acknowledges a problem: "But if we say of a number of people that each of them believes that he himself is clever, what belief exactly are we attributing to all of them? Certainly they do not all believe the same proposition, as 'proposition' is commonly understood by philosophers."? Perry develops Geach's problem in several two-stage examples,"? At stage one, the subject knows all the true propositions there are to know about his situation but cannot locate himself with respect to those facts. For instance, an amnesiac is lost in a library, despite having read the map of the library and his own up-to-date biography. Since he does not know that he himself is the person described in the biography as wandering in the library whose map he has read, the knowledge is of no use. At stage two, the subject succeeds in locating himself with respect to the facts. The amnesiac realizes that he himself is the person described in the biography as wandering on the eighth floor of the library; the knowledge already possessed becomes available for deliberation and action-guidance. Perry asks how to characterize the change in the subjects' beliefs occurring in the transition from stage one to stage two. The "locating beliefs'?' acquired are "essentially indexical": they have the irreducible immediacy . of first-personal beliefs and their third-personal equivalents employing the indirect reflexive. The problem is that locating beliefs cannot easily be accommodated by the doctrine that belief is an attitude towards proposi.. .. _ - _ . __ .__ _--~-_

.~

88. On relative and absolute positing, see Kant (1900- ), EMBD, 2: 73. 89. Geach (1972), 129. 90. Perry (1993), Chapters 1 and 3. 91. Perry (1993), 35: "I shall use the term 'locating beliefs' to refer to one's beliefs about where one is, when it is, and who one is."

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tions, as traditionally understood. As Perry puts it, any attempt to specify a locating belief in first-personal terms-for instance, by saying, "I am the amnesiac wandering on the eighth floor of the library"-seems, from the viewpoint of the traditional doctrine of propositions, to have "a missing conceptual ingredient."92 From a Fichtean standpoint, however, we might say that any attempt to specify a locating belief in non-first-personal terms has a missing intuitive ingredient. Lewis's radical solution is to entirely abandon propositions as the objects of belief and desire: "1 say that all belief is 'self-locating belief.' Belief de dicta is self-locating belief with respect to logical space; belief irreducibly de se is self-locating belief at least partly with respect to ordinary time and space, or with respect to the population. 1 propose that any kind of selflocating belief should be understood as self-ascription of properties." In Lewis's view, every belief or desire involves immediate self-ascription. Every belief or desire is a self-location in logical space, whereas some are also self-locations in empirical space.?" Although Fichte is responding to Perry's problem not but rather to the perceived demand for an actual ground of the capacity for immediate selfascription and rational agency, his response has an affinity with Lewis's proposal. For the ground in question is the activity of self-positing or selflocating in the space of reasons, an activity that need not be made explicit in every act of positing, but that is there to be made explicit when appropriate. Of course, this activity of self-positing is not a locating of myself in the space of reasons as a particular individual, conceived in a determinate way, on the basis of certain information. We are concerned only with that activity of self-positing that is presupposed by any act of positing whatsoever-namely, "the act of self-positing as positing," the location of myself as a locater in logical space, as a thinker of determinate objects. For reasons quite different from Lewis's, then, Fichte reaches an apparently similar conclusion: every act of consciousness is conditioned by an actual selfconsciousness, or every positing involves an immediate self-positing as selfpositing." 92. Perry (1993), 37. 93. Lewis (1979), 140. 94. Hence, Castaneda called Lewis's view a kind of Fichteanisrn. See Castaneda (1987), 426: "The [Self-Ascription] View is nicely Fichtean in a moderate sense: all consciousness is diffusely self-consciousness, and all reference is tacit self-reference." See 440 for Chisholm's "subdued Fichteanisrn." Differences between these views and Fichte's deserve discussion elsewhere.

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The act in question is, then, immediate and singular, since it relates to the subject signified by the first person singular. So it has the two distinguishing marks of an intuition. Moreover, this act of immediately positing myself as self-positing plays the role characteristic of an intuition, according to Fichte, because it enables me to have first personal cognition, in which I know what I am doing because 1 am the one doing it. 9 5 So there is good reason to call this act an intuition. Since the act in question is a pri01i necessary for any act of consciousness whatsoever and cannot be derived from anything sensible, Fichte calls it intellectual intuition. Fichte's account of "pure self-consciousness" as intellectual intuition is further from Kant than Fichte's account of moral consciousness as intellectual intuition. In the latter case, it is largely a matter, in light of what seems to be Kant's view, of whether or not to use the term. In the former case, it is a matter ofdeveloping an account where Kant himself is particularly cagey, and then finding use of the term appropriate in light of this account, to which Kant is not committed and might be opposed.P" Still, the view I have attributed to Fichte is not obviously incompatible with much of what Kant says on the topic, and it is philosophically interesting in its own right. We are now able to understand why, in attributing intellectual intuition to us, Fichte does not take himself to be denying the discursive character of human cognition. As he uses the term, intellectual intuition is not intuition of a being, which would stand in need 0 f neither sensible intuition nor conceptualization. Rather, intellectual intuition is intuition of my own activity. Here is how Fichte characterizes his position with respect to Kant and Schultz: 95. Two clarifications are necessary here. First, this is not to say that the mere activity of intellectual intuition in this sense amounts to empirical knowledge of my personal identity over time or that it guarantees the availability of such knowledge. At any rate, these claims are philosophically unfounded, I know no text in which Fichte dearly commits himself to them, and they seem unrelated to Fichte's philosophical concerns. Henrich's characterization of Fichtean selfpositing as self-Imowledgc is at least suggestive of these claims. See Henrich (1971), (1982). Second, the immunity to error through misidentification of the subject who ascribes the act first personally to herself, does not pertain to the content ascribed to the act. It does not follow from Pichte's claim that first personal self-cognition involves self-intuition that claims to know what I am doing cannot be wrong about what I am doing. Again, I do not know any passage in which Fichte clearly commits himself to this problematic claim. However, in this case it docs seem that such a claim is related to Fichte's project. For if descriptions of my immediately self ascribed acts were incorrigible, then Fichte's philosophical descriptions could claim incorrigibility too. 96. See Ameriks (1982), Henrich (1992), Sturma (1985), and Klemme (1996).

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According to Kant, according to Schultz, and according to me, three elements are required for a complete representation: [1) There is that whereby the representation obtains a relation to an object and thus becomes a representation of something. We all agree in calling this "sensory intuition." (This remains true even when the object of representation is I myself. In this case I become for myself something that endures through time.) [21 There is that whereby the representation is related to a subject and thus becomes my representation. TIllS, according to Kant and Schulz, should not be called "intuition." I, however, call it by this name, for it bears the same relationship to a complete representation that sensory intuition does. (3) Lastly, there is that whereby the first two elements are united and thus become a representation. Here again, we all agree in designating this a "concept. »97 Thus human cognition remains both discursive and finite, not creative. Nevertheless, what Fichte calls intellectual intuition is self-actualizing, like the divine mode of cognition that Kant calls intellectual intuition. Positing myself as self-positing constitutes me as an agent who is able to posit.P" Positing myself as self-legislating constitutes me as an agent who is practically free to be autonomous or heteronomous. In Pichte's view, neither sensory intuition nor intellectual intuition ordinarily occurs on its own, as a fact of consciousness, although both can become facts of consciousness for the philosopher: Like sensory intuition, which never occurs by itself or constitutes a complete state of consciousness, this intellectual intuition never occurs alone, however, as a complete act of consciousness. Both types of intuition must also be grasped by means of concepts, or "comprehended." Nor is this all. In addition, intellectual intuition is always conjoined with some sensory intuition. I cannot discover myself to be acting without also discovering some object upon which I act; and I discover this object by means of sensory intuition, which I grasp by means of a concept ... If,however, it must be conceded that there is no immediate, isolated consciousness of intellectual intuition, then where does the philosopher obtain his acquaintance with intellectual intuition and his isolated rep-----~

----~

~~--~~-~--~~--~~--~~--~~-~~~~-~~~

97. Fichre (1964- ), VDWL, 1/4: 227. 98. See Neuhauser (1990), 77-78. Ameriks (2000a), 250, 254-255, finds this to be a mysterious claim that conflates episternic and metaphysical issues, and he observes that it commits Fichte to the view that, either the I ceases to exist during deep sleep or intellectual intuition continues during deep sleep. Again, Ameriks's unsympathetic reading depends on the assumption that Fichte cannot allow the possibility of representations without consciousness.

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resentation of the same? I answer this question as follows: He undoubtedly obtains this in the same way he obtains his acquaintance with and his isolated representation of sensory intuition: namely, by means of an inference from the obvious facts of consciousness ... Hence the philosopher discovers this intellectual intuition as a fact of consciousness. (It is a fact [Tatsachel for him; for the original I it is an act .[Tathandlung]. He does not, however, discover it immediately, as an isolated fact within his consciousness, but only insofar as he introduces distinctions into what is present as a unity within ordinary consciousness and thereby dissolves this whole into its components.P? Thus the transcendental philosopher, undertaking to account for the a priori possibility of ordinary experience, departs from ordinary experience by distinguishing within her own experience what is not ordinarily distinguished, At first, this is a matter of inference: there must a priOli be certain conditions, or else experience could not be possible. But it becomes a matter not merely of inference but of consciousness. By forming concepts adequate for the comprehension of these conditions, she becomes capable of new and peculiarly philosophical states of consciousness in which she ascribes these conditions to herself. In these states, that which is ordinarily an act that enables consciousness and that is unavailable as a fact of consciousness, becomes a fact of consciousness. In the same way, a meaning is ordinarily that by which a word refers to its object and is ordinarily not the topic of discussion. But the practitioner of semantics makes the meaning into the topic of discussion and must frame new and appropriate concepts and words. When the transcendental philosopher adequately conceptualizes intellectual intuition, she acquires transcendental self-knowledge. This is not knowledge of the self as a thing in itself. For a thing in itself would be an entity that is available for the passive intuition of some possible being, and that is what it is in virtue of its intrinsic properties. As a Holistic Monist, Fichte must deny that the I is a thing in itself. For the I cognizes itself in action, hence as an I, not as a self, while there can be no room for intrinsic properties once Holistic Monism is taken to have defeated Monadic Individualism. Rather, transcendental self-knowledge is the I's knowledge of the I in itself. That is to say, it is knowledge acquired, not from a partial 99. Fichte (1964- ), VDWL, U4: 217-219.

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standpoint within the totality, but from the standpoint of the absolute principle that renders the whole an unconditioned whole, or a totality.P?

5.6 What, then, is the relationship between these two intellectual intuitions? What role do they play in Fichte's systematic program? One view-recently defended by Karl Ameriks and Frederick Beiseris that the intellectual intuition of freedom through consciousness of the moral law provides the starting point for Fichte's transcendental account, which is therefore ineliminably moralistic. As Ameriks puts it, this commits Fichte to a radical, methodological primacy of the practical, which should be distinguished from a still stronger global primacy: It should be noted that what is meant here by the methodological primacy of pure practical reason, that is, the "radical" primacy of the practical, does not entail having to go so far as to claim a fully "global"primacy of the practical, since it need not require distinctively practical considerations to be an internal part of all substantive assertions. All that the claim of methodological practical primacy asserts is that to get to the first step of properly asserting any nontrivial existential assertions, one has to rely on at least one premise that is irreducibly moral and has no significant precondition in prior "neutral" ontological investigations.'?'

. As this passage makes clear, Ameriks's view is that Fichte accords methodological primacy not to the practical in general but specifically to the moral. However, unlike some earlier proponents of this reading-notably Josiah Royce10 2-Ameriks thinks that moral primacy (as 1 shall call it from 100. See, for example, Fichte (1964- ), VDWL, 1/4: 190: "The object of idealism is precisely this I in itself." In a footnote, Fichte remarks, "I have hitherto avoided this expression in order not to occasion any representation of an I as a thing in itself. My concern was in vain; consequently, I will now employ this expression, because I do not see whom I have to spare." 101. Ameriks (2000a), 193. Cf. Beiser (2002), 219-220, 233: "In ascribing primacy to practical reason in this sense, Fichte made the principles of morality nothing less than a transcendental condition of the possibility of experience itself. This means that we can assume that there is an external world-the fundamental presupposition of our experience-only as a condition for moral action." 102. See Royce (1919)

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now on) is characteristic of Fichte's views from approximately 1797 but not those of his earlier works. In this developmental claim, Ameriks follows Federick Neuhauser, who divides Fichte's development (before his Berlin period) into three stages: (1) a presysternatic stage, in which Fichte explores the possibility of a theoretical first principle, the "formal unity of consciousness," but abandons the attempt to formulate a principle expressing the unconditionality of the 1; (2) the first presentation of the WissenschaJtslehre in works published in 1794, primarily the Foundations, in which Fichte's conception of the unconditionality of the 1 equivocates between ~ theoretical and a practical or moral meaning in a way that is fatal to his attempt to prove the practicality of pure reason on the basis of a principle that is universally recognized; and (3) the second presentation of the WissenschaJtslehre in 1797-1799, in which the first principle now expresses an unequivocally practical commitment to autonomy.l'" In Ameriks's view, it is hard to understand why Fichte characterizes both consciousness of the moral law and pure self-consciousness as involving intellectual intuition. Thus Ameriks says that Fichte "unfortunately" follows clear assertions of moral primacy with what seem to be nonmoral claims about consciousness, thus "complicating matters" and "generating a mistaken impression."?" Indeed, Ameriks finds the clearest expression of Fichte's moral primacy in The Vocation oj Man, in which Fichte argues directly from consciousness of the moral law to antiskeptical claims. 105 103. See Neuhauser (2000), 32-65. Beiser does not discuss Neuhauser's view and seems to find more continuity in Fichte's thinking. But Neuhauser sees Fichte as committed to the primacy of the practical in the relevant sense already in 1794, and to some extent in works from 1791 on. See Beiser (2002), 228-239. 104. See Ameriks (2000a), 179, 199-20L 105. See Arneriks (2000a), 173-174, 183, 194-196, 2J 2, 230. In his Preface Pichte explicitly states that BM is intended to be useful outside the schools and is not addressed to professional philosophers. This is not a reason to dismiss it, but it is a reason not to take it as a maximally adequate formulation of Fichte's position. In particular, HM retains the distinction between theoretical and practical concerns whose overcoming he regards as one of his principal achievements. But BM prepares the way for the overcoming of the distinction in professional philosophy, for those who are so inclined. As I read it, the central question of HM, raised in Part J, is how to reconcile the thoroughgoing ontic determinacy and causal determination of the world-system, which seems to have nihilistic implications, with my immediate awareness of myself as acting freely. In Part II, a theoretical interpretation of this immediacy fails to provide the desired reconciliation. For, if I consider myself to be claiming theoretical knowledge, then I cannot resist the demand for justification, which leads to an infinite regress that no knowledge-claim can stop. In Part Ill, however, the regress is stopped through a practical interpretation of the immediacy of my

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It seems impossible to reconcile this interpretation with Fichte's rejection of regressive transcendental arguments from facts of consciousness, which he expresses as early as 1793 and which he continues to emphasize not only in his methodological reflections but also in his polemical writings. If the interpretation summarized above is correct, then Fichte simply is giving a regressive argument from the fact of moral consciousness, and the difference between Fichte and Schmid lies not in methodology but only in Fichte's emphasis on morality. So, although this is not the place to give a full account of Fichte's development, I need to say enough about his development to show where and why I disagree witb Ameriks, Beiser, and Neuhauser. Although I agree with Neuhouser that there are some significant differences-differences that are not only presentational but also substantivebetween the 1794-1795 version of the WissenschaJtslehre and the 17961799 version.l'" I disagree with his and Ameriks's characterizations of those differences. In the first place, I think that we should take seriously Fichte's own account of development:

The first presentation was made somewhat awkward by the fact that the discussion of the conditions for the possibility of the principles did not present these conditions in their natural order, but was instead divided into a "theoretical" and a "practical" part. As a result of this division, many directly related issues were separated too widely from one another. This will no longer occur in the present version, [which will follow] a method of presentation that is just the opposite of that followed by the author in his compendium of 1794, where he proceeded from the theoretical portion of philosophy (i.e., from what had 1O be explained) to the practical

self-awareness as a free agent, which is now understood as the immediacy of an act in which 1 acknowledge the contents of my mental states as reason-giving. Fichte emphasizes the connection between the freedom expressed in this act and my freedom to acknowledge the moral law as supremely normative. This emphasis makes sense, given his popular intention. Indeed, the act of acknowledging the moral law is the highest instance of the activity of acknowledging the content of my mental state as reason-giving. ln a less popular exposition, Fichte could have alsoemphasized that it follows from his account that every act responsive to reason-s-even to a theoretical reason, or reason-for-belief-involves a practical moment. In his systematic works he develops not only that idea but also the idea that every act responsive to reason-even to a practical reason, or reason-for-action-involves a theoretical moment. This would be out of place in BM, but is not inconsistent with anything said there. 106. [regard GNR (1796) as the first published expression of Fichte's second presentation.

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part (i.e., to what was meant to serve as the basis for explaining the former). In the present lectures, however, the hitherto familiar division between theoretical and practical philosophy is not to be found. Instead, these lectures present philosophy as a whole, in the exposition of which theoretical and practical philosophy are united. The presentation follows a much more natural path, beginning with the practical sphere, or, whenever it would contribute to the clarity of the exposition to do so, inserting the practical into the theoretical, in order to explain the latter in terms of the former: a liberty for which the author was not yet sufficiently selfconfident at the time that he published his Wissens,haftslehre. 107 107. Fichte (1964- ), Wl.nm, lVl2: 16-17. The issues raised in this passage are complicated by the fact that, while I think that the lecture transcripts provide the key to the interpretation of the published works of 1796-1799, Ameriks (2000a) finds reasons to "bracket discussion" of the lecture transcripts, while Beiser (2002) finds reason to treat them "chiefly as a supplement to the published works." Indeed, Martin chooses to disregard them altogether. Martin (1998), 6-7, gives four reasons: (1) unlike the 1794-1795 GWL, Fichte never published a work based on the lectures; (2) the lectures were never directly known to anyone except the students attending them; (3) the Foundations are adequate for an understanding of Fichte's views on the relationship between theory and practice, and on dialectical methodology; finally, (4) the lecture transcripts suggest only strategic, not doctrinal developments. Ameriks presumably rejects (3) and (4), since he follows Neuheuser's account of Fichte's development. But he affirms both (1) and (2). See Ameriks, 202n.14. Beiser, 221, gives two reasons of his own: (5) the transcripts, even if accurate, tell us only what Fichte was thinking during two semesters; and (6) there is no comparison between the transcripts and the published works "in tenus of providing sustained, detailed, and rigorous technical argument." I will respond to these points in turn. (1) Fichte intended to publish his VDWLand succeeded in publishing two introductions plus the first chapter before his attention was distracted by the atheism controversy. So the fact that he did not complete publication should not be taken to suggest that the "new method" developed in the lectures was merely a momentary and undeveloped commitment. Indeed, it is not difficult to show that the published works of 1796-1799 presuppose the foundations laid in the lectures. For example, each repeats a major claim made in the lectures, which is possible only through the overcoming of the theoretical/practical distinction. See Fichte (l964 WLnm, IV/2: 241: "The 'ought,' or the categorical imperative, is also a theoretical principle." Cf. Fichte (1964- ), 1/5: 77. See Franks (2000b). (2) Besides the fact that Fichte's lectures were famously well-attended and, indeed, attended by some significant and wellconnected figures during this time, if I am right about the connection between the lectures and the published works from 1796 to 1799, then some of the basic ideas from the "new method" were widely known. Mainly through GNR they were, for example, very significant for Hegel. With respect to (3) and (4), the complexity of the issues demands a lengthier treatment than is possible here. It will have to suffice to say that, on the one hand, the major claim mentioned above is not to be found in the 1794-1795 GWL, which strongly suggests that no principle is both theoretical and practical, and that no theoretical principle is constitutive, while the "new method" enables Fichte to argue that his first principle is both theoretical and practical, and hence constitutive both theoretically-in its transcendental employment-and practically-in its normative employment. c

e

-

),

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Fichte states here that, in his second presentation, he dispenses with the traditional distinction between theoretical and practical philosophy. This means not only that he begins with the practical-a claim to which I will return shortly-but also that he "inserts the practical into the theoretical." As becomes clear in the 1796-1799 texts, Fichte thinks that the distinction between theoretical and practical philosophy is an abstract, reflective version of an important distinction between ideal and real activity. Realactivity is "true activity, which is an instance of acting," whereas ideal activity is "activity in a state of repose," "an image or copy" of the object to which real activity directs itself.10 8 On the one hand, there can be no ideal activity without teal activity and no real activity without ideal activity. Thus, intellectual intuition of both the kinds discussed above involves both moments or aspects. On the other hand, ideal activity is the ground of real activity. This reflects Fichte's commitment to Holistic Monism: real activity is the first principle, which grounds ideal activity, but real activity is an immanent, not a transcendent principle, and could not exist without its derivatives. Fichte sometimes expresses his thesis by saying that the practical is the ground or foundation of the theoretical. But this should not be understood in a way that would allow the ground to exist without what it grounds. Unfortunately, Fichte's first presentation encourages this misunderstanding by observing the distinction between theoretical and practical philosophy, and thus by suggesting that there can be theoretical cognition that is in no way practical, and practical cognition that is no way theoretical. Neuhouser and Ameriks ignore what Fichte takes to be significant about On the other hand,' given the dialectical method of the 1794··1795 GWL and the repeated reinterpretations of the first principle, it would be hard to dismiss the claim that Fichre always intended to reach such a conclusion through some further dialectical reinterpretation. (5) It is to some' extent true that any text of Fichte's shows us only what he was thinking at the time of composition. But Pichte gave these lectures in both 1796 and 1799, apparently with few changes, during which time he intended to work them up into a published version, an intention that he partially carried out and did not give up until 180L So the transcripts reflect, at least in its main gist, if not in every detail, what Fichte thought for the bulk of his years at jena. (6) To be sure, the lecture transcripts differ from the ideal version that Fichte would have liked to publish. But I do not find the argument of the transcripts to be much less sustained, rigorous, and detailed than the published works of the period, especially if it is read in conjunction with those works. Indeed, I find that it compares favorably with the argument of the 1794-1795 GWL, which represents nothing more than the handouts for Fichte's first attempt at university teaching. Of course, this issue can only be resolved by detailed interpretation, which I will offer elsewhere. 108. Fichte (1964- ), WLnm, [VIZ: 44.

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his development. They consequently fall into the trap of thinking that Fichte is committed to a practical first principle that is really distinct from its theoretical derivatives. When Fichte begins his new presentation by emphasizing the intellectual intuition involved in every act of consciousness-such as, famously, thinking of a wall-he means, then, to emphasize the real aspect of all such acts. He accordingly chooses an example that is not distinctively practical, let alone moraL I do not think that Fichte's discussion of nonmoral intellectual intuition is "unfortunate" or confusing.Rather, it is essential for his program, which is to show that there is a real first principle that is both immanent within and foundational for every act of consciousness. What, then, does Fichte mean in those passages where he emphasizes that consciousness of the moral law involves intellectual intuition in an exemplary fashion, and where he expresses what Ameriks takes to be moral primacy? To answer this question, we need to distinguish between (1) the starting point of the transcendental philosopher, or the taking up of the transcendental standpoint, which is the precondition for transcendental philosophy, (2) the starting point of transcendental philosophy, which is the absolute first principle, and (3) the culmination of transcendental philosophy, which is the ultimate derivative of the first principle. Failure to make these distinctions has led to confusion. In my view, consciousness of the moral law serves, in Fichte's second presentation, as (1) and (3) but

not as (2). The relationship between (1) the precondition or taking up of the standpoint of transcendental philosophy and (2) the first principle of transcendental philosophy is equivalent to the relationship between the Factum of reason and the actuality of freedom in Kant's second Critique. In other words, the moral law is the ratio cognoscendi of real activity, while real activity is the ratio essendi of the moral law. At the same time, there is a circle in which each entails the other. To show that real activity is indeed . actual and not merely a necessity of our thinking, which might be deluded, Fichte must show that, from the first principle or ratio essendi, follow not only the formal conditions of theoretical and practical cognition, but also the determinate applicability of those conditions to sensibly given objects. Thus his system culminates in a demonstration of the determinate applicability of the highest form. In other words, the system can be considered complete only when it deduces the possibility of consciousness of the moral law as a derivative of real activity-that is, only when the system demon-

_--_

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strates the possibility of its own precondition, hence when it demonstrates its own possibility. More needs to be said about the precondition and about the culmination of the system. First, how does consciousness of the moral law enable the transcendental philosopher to arrive at the first principle? There seem to be two possibilities. The first is that one cannot understand that every act of consciousness involves intellectual intuition, and one cannot discern real activity, unless one has first acknowledged the supreme normative force of the moral law, and hence the actuality of one's own practical freedom.l'" The second is that, although one can understand that every act of consciousness involves intellectual intuition, and one can discern real activity, without first acknowledging the supreme nonnative force of the moral law and the actuality of one's own freedom, what one cannot do without satisfying this precondition is acknowledge real activity as the absolute first

principle of philosophy. The first option seems implausible. Fichte does not seem explicitly committed to it and, if my previous account of intellectual intuition is correct, then understanding or affirming the thesis that every act of consciousness involves intellectual intuition does not seem to depend in any way on prior realization of one's practical freedom. The second option, however, is plausible. It is also, I think, what Fichte has in mind when he says, for example: Intellectual intuition provides the only firm standpoint for any philosophy.... I cannot be driven from this position. This is the point where my philosophy becomes entirely independent of all arbitrary choice and becomes a product of iron necessity-to the extent, that is, that free reason can be subject to necessity: i.e., it becomes a product of practical necessity. I cannot go beyond this standpoint, because I am not permitted to go beyond it. With this, transcendental idealism simultaneously reveals itself to be the only type of philosophical thinking that accords with duty. It is the mode of thinking in which speculation and the ethical law are most intimately united. I ought to begin my thinking with the thought of the pure I, and I ought to think of this pure I as absolutely self-activenot as determined by things; but rather as determining them"? 109. See Perrinjaquet (1994). 83-86. 110. Fichte (1964 ), VDWL, V4: 219-220. The term jirm standpoint alludes to the Archimcdean request, "00 if there is an incompatibility between transcendental idealism and empirical realism, then it will be not immediate but rather the result of the program's failure. Can German idealism have any pertinence to contemporary AngloAmerican philosophy in light of the current dominance of varieties of naturalism?" Agreeing on the whole that naturalism is a good thing> Anglo4. See Wright (1992). 5. For a striking formulation of the claim that German idealism is incompatible with contem-

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- - _..._ ...- - _..._ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

~~ ....

American Kantians tend to divide from Anglo-American post-Kantians precisely on the question of whether a reconstructed Kantianism or a reconstructed German idealism is hetter described as naturalist." But "naturalism" is used to signify a bewildering range of commitments. If (1) a naturalist is someone who believes that there is no need for a philosophical discipline distinct from natural science, or that philosophy is methodologically continuous with natural science, then neither Kant nor the German idealists are naturalists. Nor is any philosopher who accepts the need for some distinction between the empirical and transcendental standpoints. If, however, (2) a naturalist is someone who believes that the only possible entities are the empirical objects studied in natural science, then, porary naturalism, see Rosen (1994), 276-277: "most of the good philosophers writing in the 19th century took it for granted that the world as a whole was in some sense psychic-c-penetrated through with thought or memahty-i-and hence that the study of Mind was the proper foundation for the study of absolutely everything. These days, of course, we can hardly take the idea seriously. Metaphysical idealism of the old German sort strikes us as simply incredible.... The Mind of the idealists was, after all, a very peculiar thing by our lights: an entity not quite identical with anything we encounter in the natural world~and this includes the 'subject' of empirical psychology-swhich nonetheless somehow constitutes or conditions that world. And the trouble with idealism is that we just can't bring ourselves to believe in this Mind any more. A Ilexible and relatively undemanding naturalism functions as an unofficial axiom of philosophical common sense. This naturalism is so vague and inchoate that any simple formulation will sound either empty or false. But it is a real constraint: and one of its implications is that if we believe in minds at all, they are the embodied minds of human beings and other animals .... And since it is just plain obvious that empirical, embodied minds do not actively constitute the bulk of inanimate nature, the idea that the world as a whole is in some sense mental can only strike us as an incredible fantasy. So understood, the problem of idealism is about as dead for us as a philosophical problem can get." Here Rosen makes two striking assumptions: first, that there is a community of "philosophical common sense" for whom he may speak with neither hesitation nor qualification; second, that it is obvious both what "the problem of idealism" is and that German idealism is a version of empirical idealism. 6. Bird (1962) and Strawson (1966) pioneered the "nonmetaphysical" reading of Kant, which attributes to him a distinctively philosophical (hence on one construal, nonnatnralistic) method along with-s-in some sense-naturalistic commitments. Some, like Strawson, regard Kant's philosophy as having "two faces": a naturalistic face and a nonnaturalistic face, between which it is possible to draw a sharp distinction. Others think that no such distinction is needed, since Kant has only one face, a naturalistic one. The reading has numerous variants, as does the "nonmetaphysical" reading of German idealism v-usually, of Hegel-which similarly attributes to him a distinctively philosophical method along with some set of adequately naturalistic commitments. This view was pioneered by Findlay (1958) and Hartmann (1972). For more recent developments, see, for example, Pinkard (l988), (1994), (2000), (2002); Pippin (1982), (l99l), (1995), (1997), Redding (1996), Rosen (l988), and Stem (1994). Again, there are both two-face and one-face variants.

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according to the argument of this book, the German idealists are naturalists but Kant is not. For, in light of his Monadic Individualism in metaphysics and his Newtonian holism in physics, Kant is committed to the existence of supersensible entities or things in themselves, which are not subject to the laws of nature. In contrast, as Holistic Monists, German idealists deny the existence of any such entities. The absolute first principle in which they ground empirical objects is not sensible, but it is also not an entity. There are at least two other senses in which the question of naturalism is worth raising here. In one sense, (3) a naturalist is someone who eschews all metaphysical claims, limiting philosophical inquiry to some conceptual scheme shared by some group, by all finite rational beings, or by all human beings, or by some more local community. In another sense, (4) a naturalist is someone whose metaphysical commitments are entirely secular, someone who makes no theological claims. On the interpretations offered here, neither Kant nor the German idealists are naturalists in either of these senses. All of them make metaphysical claims that transcend the limits of anything describable as "our conceptual scheme," anything that contrasts with "the in itself." Indeed, all of them make claims that are, in some recognizable sense, theological-which is not to deny that each is in some way a theological revolutionary. In Kant's case, both of these theses are controversial. One of the most impressive strands of recent Kant interpretation has taken pains to argue that Kant's transcendental idealism may be construed as a Two Aspects view that involves no existential commitments beyond the limits of possible human experience. Even among those who think Kant is committed to the existence of supersensible things in themselves as noumena in the negative sense, some would balk at the suggestion that he has substantive commitments to the existence of noumena in some positive sense that includes being grounded in God. On the interpretations offered here, however, Kant has such commitments, and they are metaphysically substantive, notwithstanding the fact that they are demonstrable only from the practical point of view. As for the German idealists, I think it is relatively uncontroversial that they are not naturalists in the third sense. At any rate, in my view, it should not be controversial. Responding to Mannon's version of the Actuality Problem confronting transcendental argumentation-to the worry that, even if some line of philosophical reasoning is necessary for us, it is nevertheless a merely formal line of reasoning that shows how we must think

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but not how things actually are-is one of the chief objectives of German idealist methodology. What is and should be controversial is whether they are nonnaturalists in the fourth. Some impressive recent commentaries seek either to downplay the importance of theology within their projects or to read their overtly theological claims as claims about the structure of the human community." I would argue, however, that those who take the former view underestimate the central importance of ontotheology-notably, the identification of God as the absolute first principle required for an escape from the Agrippan trilemma-for the German idealist program in its most fundamental formulations. Meanwhile, tbose who think it obviOUS that the God of German idealism is not really God, on account of not being a supersensible entity, have not taken seriously a range of possibilities that go beyond what is sometimes called orthodox theology in both Judaism and Christianity. In particular, they have not taken seriously the possibility that Spinozismwhich can take a variety of forms, including but not limited to Spinoza's own view-may be described not only as the naturalization of theology but also as the theologization of nature. German idealists naturalize theology insofar as they reject all supernatural entities, including a supernatural divinity. But they theologize nature insofar as they maintain that nature is possible, as the object of empirical knowledge, only if the categorial forms of nature are transcendentally derivable from an absolute first principle that is appropriately characterized as divine." Whether the German idealists have theological views that can be reconciled with some version of theological or religious orthodoxy is quite different from the question whether they have genuinely theological or religious views at all. I have not addressed the former question in this study."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - ..._ - _..._-----------'----7. For an example of the former, see Pippin (1989). For an example of the latter, see Redding (1996) and my review in Franks (2001). 8. Donagan (1991) raises the question of whether Spinoza naturalizes metaphysics or supernaturalizes nature. He argues for the latter possibility, on the grounds that Spinoza seems to take a holistic, proto-Quinean approach to the theoretical and observational aspects of science, and hence that he has no distinctively a priOli method for metaphysics, Whether or not Donagan is light about Spinoza, his argument can be turned on its head in the case of German idealism. For Quine formulated his holism precisely against a descendant of the Kantian/German idealist distinction between the philosophical and empirical standpoints-namely, Carnap's. Consequently, if employing a distinctively a priori method in philosophy is sufficient, then the German idealists must be said to supernaturalize nature. 9. For an insightful discussion of this question, see O'Regan (1994).

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In my view, then, there is a sense in which the German idealists are naturalists but Kant is not. For they reject the supersensible things in themselves to which he is committed. As I have argued, however, they remain committed to the in itself, understood as the absolute ground of the possibility of experience. What they reject is any description of the in in terms of things, because they think that no such description could be sufficiently heterogeneous to empirical grounding. Consequently, they are not naturalists in the other senses I have discussed. If my interpretation is correct, then I doubt that many contemporary philosophers who call themselves naturalists would apply the term to the German idealists. Does this deprive German idealism of contemporary relevance? I hope that relevance consists not merely in fundamental agreement with prevalent contemporary views, but rather in the provocation to rethink those views. As 1 have presented it here, the German idealist program responds to problems about justification and explanation that remain live, at least in analogous forms, within contemporary philosophy. Moreover, the German idealist mode of response can be motivated without appeal to any antecedent religious convictions. Historically, to be sure, the identification of the absolute principle as the divine seems to have been there from the dawn of philosophy and is surely present from the beginning of each German idealist's career. Methodologically, however, this identification, along with some interpretation of religion as implicitly acknowledging the principle, can come late in the story. It is just because the identification can come late in the story that some religious thinkers-perhaps out of considerations dose to Jacobi's, perhaps for reasons closer to Sche1ling'sregard German idealism as inadequate for a genuine understanding of religion'? If a naturalist is someone who rejects any philosophical position with a theological dimension out of hand and without argument, then it is a form of dogmatism whose influence is regrettable. No doubt, there are theological philosophers who are equally dogmatic in their rejection of any wholly secular philosophy, but, in my view, the German idealists are not among them. What they assume is that religion-like, say, ethics and aestheticsis a region of human life-of judgment and doctrine, as wen as ritual and worship-that is subject to specific kinds of skepticism and that merits a philosophical account, whether that account expresses skepticism or tries 10. See, for example, the views of Franz Rosenzweig in Franks and Morgan (2000).

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to respond to it. The burden of proof is on those who think that there should be no philosophical account of religion in this broad sense. What, then, of the thought that German idealism is too obscure to take seriously? Presumably, this presupposes that the obscurity in question results not from the genuine difficulty of the subject matter but from either muddle-headedness or obscurantism-or an unholy combination of the two. I have argued here, however, that a philosophically motivated commitment to the heterogeneity of philosophical grounding leads to the idea of a special standpoint for philosophy, and thus to the idea that some language will be used differently from that standpoint. These uses will therefore be misunderstood, or not understood at all, by those who do not occupy the required standpoint. Thus a certain obscurity follows from the very nature of the German idealist project. What remains to be seen, however, is the extent to which the actual obscurities of German idealist texts can be explained in this way. Studies of German idealists often claim contemporary interest on the ground that some reconstructed version of German idealism fits a description with acknowledged contemporary appeal, such as "nonreductive naturalism." This has not been my strategy, although German idealism, as I understand it, is certainly nonreductive and is in some sense naturalistic. First, I have focused precisely on the aspect of German idealism that is least fashionable: the systematization project that inherits and transforms an ancient tradition of ontotheology that could hardly have less contemporary appeal. Second, I have sought to reconstruct, not a philosophical position or family of positions resulting from this project, but rather the complex of problems to which the project is responsive. Some of these problems-some versions of post-Kantian skepticism, for example-have contemporary analogues, which arise in tum from the analogies between earlier developments in Anglo-American philosophy and the Kantian or transcendental tum. Other problems-those that motivate the quest for absolute grounding-will seem less familiar. Even in this case, however, there are contemporary analogues, for example in epistemology and in moral philosophy, where Agrippan' skepticism remains a topic of discussion. What is least contemporary, then, is the idea that the threat of Agrippan skepticism underlies all the problems of philosophy, and that the solution may lie in some-perhaps heterodox-version of philosophical theology. It seems to me, however, that if, in the history of philosophy, we seek to

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recognize ourselves in the other, this is worthwhile only if we also recognize the other in ourselves. If we do not reconstruct the attractions of the ontotheological interest in the absolute-of which German idealism is arguably the most sophisticated version--can we responsibly decide that this ancient tradition is dead? Without any such reconstruction, can we know how to retrieve from German idealism those philosophical treasures that have not lost their sparkle? Is it wise in philosophy to exclude in advance the possibility that something long presumed dead will surprise us with its vitality?

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Bibliography

1. Main Primary Texts Citing the main texts of German idealism is a complicated business. Only in the case of Kant is there both an excellent standard German edition and an excellent standard English edition that refers to the pagination of the German edition. The works of the other major figures are often widely available only in nineteenth century editions that are neither exhaustive nor text-critical. Although critical editions are in various stages of preparation and publication, not all the major texts have yet been included and, unlike the standard German edition of Kant's works, these editions are typically available only in research libraries, which alone can afford them. Many. English translations of German idealist texts, some excellent, have been published in the last thirty years, but they are not uniformly good and many important texts have yet to be translated. In the following systems of citation current conventions of the scholarship on each corpus, where they exist, have been followed. I have cited the standard editions and used standard abbreviations. I have also noted available translations, although I have often modified them in quotations. Ifno translation is available, then the translation given in the text is entirely my own.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) All references are given by division, volume and page of: Fichte (1964- ). ]. G. Fichte: Gesamtausgabe de: Baycrischen Akademie der Wissenscha!ten, 395

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Bibliography

eds, Reinhard Lauth, Hans Jacobs, and Hans Gliwitzky. Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt: Frommann-holzboog. This critical edition, which contains many texts unpublished by Fichte, has now replaced the nineteenthcentury edition as the basis for Fichte scholarship. The edition gives the pagination of the old and more available edition where relevant. English translations sometimes give both paginations. The following abbreviations are used to indicate individual works: Ankundigung

Seitsechs Jahren (1801); Public Announcement of a New Presentation of the Wissenschaftslehre, trans., Daniel Breazeale in Fichte (1994), Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and OtherWritings, ed. Daniel

ApT

Annalen des philosophischen Tons (1797); Annalsof Philosophical Tone, partially trans., Daniel Breazeale in Pichte (1988), Early Philosophical Writings, ed. Daniel Breazeale, 341-354, Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univer-

Breazeale, 185-201, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.

sity Press. BM EM GNR

GW

RA RC SB

55

UBWL

DieBestimmung des Menschen (1800); trans. Peter Preuss as Fichte (1987), The Vocation of Man, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. Eigene Meditationen aber Elementarphilosophie (1793-1794); Private Meditations on Elemental] Philosophy. Grundlage des Naturrechts (1796-1797); trans. Michael Baur as Fichte (2000), Foundations of Natural Right, ed, Frederick Neuhouser, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Grundlage der gesammten Wissenschaftslehre (1794-1795); Foundations of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre, trans., Peter Heath and John Lachs in Fichte (1982), Science of Knowledge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rezenscion der Aenesidemus (1794); Review of Aenesidemus, trans. Daniel Breazeale in Fichte (1988), 55-77. Rezenscion der Creuzer (1793); Review of Creuzer, trans. Daniel Breazeale as Fichte (2001) in Philosophical Forum, 32(4): 289-296.

Sonnenklarer Benchtan das grossere Publilwm aber das eigentliche Wesen der neuesten Philosophie (1801); A Crystal dear Report to the General Public concerning the Actual Essence of the Newest Philosophy, trans. William Batterman and William Rasch, in Ernst Behler, (1987) (ed.), Philosophy of German Idealism, 39-115, New York: Continuum. Das System der Sittenlehre (1798); The System of Ethics, trans. and ed. Gunther Zoller (forthcoming), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Uber den Begriff del' Wissenschaftslehre (1794/1798); Concerning the Concept of the Wissenschaftslehre, trans., Daniel Breazeale in Fichre (1988),94-135.

Bibliography

397

UGGW

Oberden Grundunseres Glaubens an einegottliche Weltregierung (1798); The Basis of Our Belief in a Divine Govemance of the World,

VDWL

Versueh etner neuen DarsteWng der Wissenschaftslehre (1797-1798); An Attempt at a New Presentation of the Wissenschaftslehre, trans.

VKO

Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbanmg (1790); trans. Garrett Green, as Fichte (1972), Attempt at a Critique of all Revelation, Cambridge:

trans. Daniel Breazeale in Fichte (1994), 142-154.

Daniel Breazeale in Fichte (1994),1-118.

Cambridge University Press.

VS

Vergleichung des vom Herrn Professor Schmid aufgestellten Systems mit der Wissenschaftslehre (1795); A Comparison of Professor Schmid's System with the Wissenschaftslehre, partially trans. Daniel Breazeale in

WLnm

Wissenschaftslehre nova methodo (179611799); Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy (Wissenschaftslehre) novamethodo, trans., Daniel Breazealeas Fichte (1992), Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy (Wissenschaftslehre) nova methodo, ed. Daniel Breazeale, Ithaca: Cor-

Fichte (1988).

zv

nell University Press. Fichte (1794), Zuricher Vorlesungen uberden BegrifJ'der Wissenschajtslehre. From Lavater's transcript, ed. Erich FUChs, Neuried: Ars Una;

Zurich Lectures on the Concept of the Wissenschaftslehre.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-.1831)

The following works are cited by volume and page or letter: Hegel (970). Werhe im zwanzig Banden, eds, Eva Moldenhauer and Karl Markus Michel. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Based on a nineteenth-century edition, this remains the standard edition, although a critical edition is in progress. Hegel (1953). Bliefe von undan Hegel, ed. Johannes Hoffmeister. Hamburg: Meiner.

The following abbreviations are used to indicate individual works: Briefe

DSP

EL

GW

Hegel (1953); partially trans. C. Butler and C. Seiler in Hegel (l984), Hegel: The Letters, eds, C. Butler and C. Seiler, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Differenz zwischen derfichte'schen und schelling'schen System der Philosophie (1801); trans. H. S. Harris and W. Cerf as Hegel (1977a), The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's System of Philosophy, Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Die Enzyklopadie des philosophischen Wissens, erster Teil: Logik (181711827); trans. T. F. Geraets, H. S. Harris and W. A. Suchting as Hegel (1991), Encyclopedia Logic, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1991. Glauben und Wissen (1802); trans. W. Cerf and H. S. Harris as Hegel (1977b), Faith and Knowledge, Albany, NY: SUNYPress.

398

PhG SPDl

Bibliography Die Philnomenologie des Geistes (1807); trans. A. V. Miller as Hegel (1977c) Phenomenology of Spirit, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Das alteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus (17961), in jamme, Christoph and Helmut Schneider (1984), Mythologie der Vernunft. Hegels 'altestes Systemprogramm des deLltschen Idealismus, ' Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. The Oldest System-Programme oI German Idealism, trans, H. S. Harris in H. S. Harris (1972), Hegel's Development: Toward the Sunlight, 17701801, 51D-512, Oxford: Clarendon Press. This text was found among Hegel's papers by Franz Rosenzweig who published it in 1917, assigned its title and ascribed it to Schelling, The authorship of the text remains disputed, although it is now widely held to be by Hegel himself.

WGM

WL VSP

Wie del' gemeine Menschenverstand die Philosophie nehme-dargestellt an der Werken des Herm Krug (1802); How the Ordinary Human Understanding Takes Philosophy-Displayed in the Works oI Mr. Krug, trans. H. S, Harris in di Giovanni and Harris (trans. and eds.) (2000), 292-310. Wissenschaft del' Logik (1812-1816); Science oI Logic, trans. A. V. Miller, London: Allen and Unwin, 1969.

Verhaltnis des Skeptizismus zu Philosophie; On the Relationship of Skepticism to Philosophy (1802), trans., H. S. Harris, in di Giovanni and Harris (2000), 311-362,

Friedrich Heinrich jacobi (1743-1819) Works cited: jacobi (1787). DavidHume aber den Glauben oder Idealismus und Realismus. Breslau: Loewe. Reprinted (1983), with the 1815 Vorrede, New York: Garland. Jacobi (1792). Eduard AllwillsBriefsammlung. Konigsberg: Nicolovius. jacobi 0998- ). Wake, Eds. Klaus Hammacher and Walter jaeschke. Hamburg: Meiner. This critical edition is still incomplete, but because of its significant improvements, I cite it where possible rather than the nineteenth-century edition, which was prepared under Jacobi's supervision and is intended to reflect his mature views rather than his development.

The following abbreviations are used to indicate individual works: 1815 Vorrede

Vorrede (1815), cited from Jacobi (1983); Preface and also Introduction to the Author's Collected Works, trans. George di Giovanni in Ja-

DHiiG

cobi (1994), Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi: The Main Philosophical Writings and the Novel Allwill, 537-590, Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. David Hume tiber den Glauben oder Idealismus und Realismus (1787),

Bibliography

EA

OLS

399

cited from Jacobi (1983); David Hume on Faith or Idealism and Realism; trans. George di Giovanni in Jacobi (1994), 253-338, Eduard Allwills BrieJsammlung (1792); Edward Allwill's Collection oj Letters, trans. George di Giovanni in jacobi (1994), 379-496.

Uber die Lehre des Spinozas in Brirfe an Herm Moses Mendelssohn (1785) (expanded version, 1789), cited from Jacobi (1998- ), Werke, eds. Klaus Hammacher and Walter jaeschke, Hamburg: Meiner; On the Doctline of Spinoza in Letters to Moses Mendelssohn, trans. George di Giovanni in jacobi (1994), 173-251, 339-378.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

All references are given by volume and page of the Akademie edition, Kants gesamme1te Schriften (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1900-- ), except for the Critique of Pure Reason, which is cited by the standard A and B pagination of the first (1781) and second (1787) editions, respectively. The following abbreviations are used to indicate individual works: BjPM

Bemerkungen zuJakob's PruJung del'Mendelssohn'schen Morgenstunden (1786); Remarks onJakob's Examination of Mendelssohn's Morning

B

Bliefwechsel; Kant (1999), Correspondence, trans. Amulf Zweig, eds,

Hours.

EMB

GMM

ID

KpV KrV

ND

Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Del' einzig mogliche Beweisgrund zu einerDemonstration des Daseins GoUes (1763); The Only Possible Argument in Support of a Demonstration of the Existence of God, trans. David Walford in Kant (1992), Theoretical Philosophy 1755-1770, eds. David Walford, Paul Guyer, and Allen W. Wood, 107-202, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Die Gnmdlegung del' Metaphysik zur Moral (1785); Groundwork of the Metaphysics oj Morals, trans. Mary J. Gregor in Kant (1996), Practical Philosophy, eds. Mary.J. Gregor, Paul Guyer, and Allen W. Wood, 37108, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. De Mundi Senstbills atque Intelligibilts Forma et Principiis (1769); Of the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World [known as Inaugural Dissertation], trans. David Walford in Kant (1992), 373-416. Kritik der praktischen VernunJt (1788); Critique of Practical Reason, trans. Mary]. Gregor in Kant (1996), 133-272. Kritik del' reinen VernUlift (A edition 1781, B edition 1787); trans. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood as Kant (1998), Critique of Pure Reason, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Principiorum Primorum Cognttionis Metaphysicae Nova Delucidatio

400

PPM

Prol

TGS

VeG

VpR

VpT

WHD

Bibliography

(1755); A New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Cognition, trans. David Walford in Kant (1992), 1-46. Preisschrift uba die Fortschritte del' Metaphysih (1793/1804); What Real Progress Has Metaphysics Made in Germany Since the Time of Leibniz and Wo!ff?, trans. Peter Heath in Kant (2002), Theoretical Philosophy after 1781, eds. Henry Allison, Peter Heath, Paul Guyer, and Allen W. Wood, 337-424, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Prolegomena zu einerjeden hunftigen Metaphysih die als Wissenschaft wirdauftreten honnen (1783); Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysic That Will Be Able to Come Forward as Science, trans. Gary Hatfield, in Kant (2002),29-170. • Traume cines Geisterseher, etlautert durch Trdume del' Metaphysih (1766); Dreams of a Spirit-Seer elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics, trans. David Walford in Kant (1992), 301-360. Von dem ersten Grunde des Unterschiedes del' Gegenden im Raume (1768); Concerning the Ultimate Ground oj the Differentiation oj Directions in Space, trans. David Walford in Kant (1992), 361-372. Vorlesungen uberdie philosophische Religionslehre (l817); Lectures on the Philosophical Doctrine oj Religion, trans. Allen W. Wood in Kant (2001), Religion and Rational Theology, eds. Allen W. Wood, George di Giovanni, and Paul Guyer, 335-452, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Von einem neuerdings erhobenen Ton in der Philosophie (1796); On a Recently Prominent Tone oj Superiority in Philosophy, trans. Peter Heath in Kant (2002), 425-446. Was heist: sich im Denhen zu orientieren? (1786); What Does It Mean to Orient Oneself in Thinking?, trans. Allen W. Wood in Kant (2001), 118.

Salomon Maimon (1753-1800)

Works cited by volume and or page: Mannon (2000a). Gesammeue Werhe, ed. V. Verra. Hildesheim: alms. This is a photostatic reproduction of the originally published texts, first published in 1965-1976. No critical edition exists. For an improved edition of Maimons first major published work of philosophy, see Maimon (2004), Versuch fiber die Iranscendentalphilosophie, ed. Florian Ehrensperger, Hamburg: Meiner. Maimon (200Gb). Giva'alh ha-Moreh, eds. S. H. Bergmann and N. Rothenstreich. Jerusalem: Israel Academy. This is an edition, first published in 1965, of Maimon's 1791 Hebrew commentary on some chapters of Maimonides's Guide of the Perplexed.

The following abbreviations are used to indicate individual works:

Bibliography _ _ _ .m

GhM Kat KU

PhW Strf

Tr Logik

....

401

_

Giva'ath ha-Moreh (1791); The Hill of the Guide. Die Kathegorien desAristoteles (1794); The Categoties of Aristotle. Kritlsche Untersuchungen iiberdenmenschllchen Geist oder dashohere Erkenntnisund Willensvermogen (1797); Clitical Investigations of the Human Mindor the Higher Faculty of Knowledge and Will. Philosophisches Worterbuch (1791); Philosophical DictionalY. Salomon Maimon's Streifereien im Gebiete del' Philosophle (1793); Wanderings in the Region of Philosophy. Includes Uber die Progressen del' Philosoph Ie (On the Progress of Philosophy) and Phllosophischer Brlefwechsel (Philosophical Corre~ spondence), Maimon's correspondence with Reinhold. Versuch aberdie Transcendentalphilosophle (1790); Essay on Transcendental Philosophy. Versuch etner neuen Loglk oder Theone des Denhens. Nebst angehangten Bnefen des Phi/alethes an Aenesidemus (1794); Attempt at a New Ingic or TheOlY of Thinking. With Appended Letters of Philalethes to Aenesldemus. The letters are partially trans. by George di Giovanni in di Giovanni and Harris (eds.) (2000), 158-203.

Karl Leonhard Reinhold (1757-1823) Original editions are cited since the first edition of Reinhold's collected works remains almost entirely in preparation. The following abbreviations are used to indicate individual works: BBMP

BKP

K

SLF

Beytrage zur Berichtigung bishenger Missverstandnlsse del' Philosophen, Vol. I (1790), Vol. II (1794), Jena: Mauke; Contributions to the Correction of the Misunderstandings of the Philosophers Hitherto. During the final stages of the preparation of this book, a new edition was published, which gives the original pagination used here: Reinhold (2003-2004), Beltrage zur Berlchtigung bishenger Miftverstandnisse del' Philosophen, ed. Faustino Fabbianelli, Hamburg: Meiner. Briefe aberdie Kantische Philosophie, in two different versions. BKP (17861787) was published in Iour installments in Del' Teutsche Merkur, ed. Christoph Wieland. BKP (1790-1792), a revised and expanded version was published in two volumes, jena: Mauke, reprinted in 1924. Trans. and ed. Karl Arneriks as Reinhold (2005), Letters concerning the Kantlan Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. KOJTespondenz 1773-1788 (1983), eds. Reinhard Lauth, Eberhard Heller and Kurt Hiller. Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt: frommann-holzboog. This is the first published volume of a projected critical edition of Reinhold's collected works. Sendschreiben an]. C. Lavater und]. G. Fichte (1799), Hamburg: Perthes; Open Letter to Lavater and Fichte.

402

VTV

UF

Bibliography

versuch einer neuen Theorie des menschlichen Vorstellungsvermogen (]789), jena: Widtmann and Mauke; reprinted (]963), Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft: Darmstadt; Attempt at a New Theory of the Human Faculty oj l~ep­ resentation, Uber das Fundament des philosophischen Wissens (1789). jena: Mauke, reprinted (1978), Hamburg, Meiner; The Foundation of Philosophical Knowledge, partially trans, by George eli Giovanni in eli Giovanni and Harris (2000),51103.

Friedrich Wilhelm joseph Von Schelling (1775-1854) Works cited: Schelling (1856-1861), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling's Sammtliche Werke, ed, K. F. A Schelling, Cotta: Stuttgart. Cited by division, volume, and page, according to the system of Schelling (1927), Schellings Werke, ed. Manfred Schroter on the basis of the earlier edition, Munich: Beck Schelling (1969), Initia Philosophiae Universae (1820-1). ed. Horst Fuhrmanns, Bonn: Bouvier.

The following abbreviations are used to indicate individual works: ADP AEIW

PDSP

PBDK

Allgemeine Deduktion des dynamischen Prozesses oderder Kategorien der Physik (1800); General Deduction of Dynamical Processes or the Categories of Physics, Abhandlungen zur Erlauterung des Idealismus der Wissenschaftslehre (17961797); Treatises Explicatory of the Idealism oj the Doctrine of Science. partially trans, Thomas Pfau in Thomas Pfau, ed, (1994), Idealism and the Endgame of Theory, 61-138. Albany, NY: SUNY. Femere Darstellungen aus dem System da Philosophie (1802); trans, Michael Vater as Schelling (2001). Further Presentations from the System of Philosophy in The Philosophical Forum, 32(4): 373-397. Philosophische Briefe iiber Dogmatismus und Kriticismus (1795); Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism. trans, Fritz Marti in Schelling (1980), The Unconditional in Human Knowledge: Four Early Essays 1794-1796, 155196, Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press,

Philosophie und Religion (1804); Philosophy and Religion. StI System des transcendentalen Idealismus (1800); trans, Peter Heath as System oj Transcendental Idealism. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, UMFP Dber die Moglichkeit einerForm der Philosophie uberhaupt (1794); Concerning the Possibility of a Form of Philosophy in General. trans, Fritz Marti in SchelPR

ling (1980), 35-58. VIPP

Yom Ich als Prinzip der Philosophie oderiiberdas Unbedingte im menschlichen

Bibliography

403

W[ssen (1795); Of the I as Prindple of Philosophy or oj the Unconditioned in Human Knowledge, trans, Fritz Marti, in Schelling (1980),63-128,

2. Other Primary Texts Beck, Jakob Sigismund (1793-1796). Erlautemder Auszug elUS den crutsdien Schr!ften des Herm Pmf Kant auf Anrathen desse/ben. Riga: Hartknoch, Volume III is subtitled Einzig-mog/icher Standpunct, elUS we/chem diecritische Philosophie beurteilt werden muss and is partially translated in di Giovanni and Harris (2000), iButler, Joseph (1740). The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature. London: Printed for John and Paul Knapton, at the Crown in Ludgate Street. Clarke, Samuel (1998). A Demonstration of theBeing andAttributes of God andOther Writings. Edited by Enzio Vailati, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Descartes, Rene (1964-1976), Oeuvres de Descartes. Eds. Charles Adam and Paul Tannery. Paris: Vrin. Descartes, Rene (1985). The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Diez, Immanuel Carl (1997). Briefwechsel und Kantischen Schriften. Wissensbegrundungin derGlaubenskrise Tubingen-]ena (1790-1792). Ed, Dieter Henrich, Stuttgmt: Klett-Cotta, di Giovanni, George and H. S. Harris (eds. and trans.) (2000). Between Kant and Hegel: Texts in the Development of Post-Kantian Idealism. Revised edition. Indianapolis: Hackett. Diogenes Laertius (1925). Lives of the Philosophers, Trans, R. D. Hicks. London: Heinemann. Hamann.johann Georg (1955-1975), Hamann's Briefwechsel. Eels. Walter Ziesemer and Arthur Henkel. Wiesbaden, Frankfurt am Main: Inset Hume, David (2000). A Treatise oJ Human Nature. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, Landau, Albert (ed.) (1991). Rezensionen zur kantischen Philosophie 1781-87, Bebra: Albert Landau Verlag, Leibniz, Gottfried (1969). Philosophical Papers and Letters. Trans. and ed. Leroy E. Loemker, Dordrecht: Reidel. Leibniz, Gottfried (1996). New Essays on Human Understanding. Trans, and eds, Peter Remant and Jonathan Bennett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Leibniz, Gottfried, and Samuel Clarke (2000). Correspondence. Ed, Roger Ariew. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. Cited by L or C, letter number and section number, for example, CL4.

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Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1970-1979). Werke. Ed. Herbert G. Gopfert, Munich: Carl Hauser Verlag. Locke,]ohn (1960). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. Peter H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Locke, John (1976--1989). The Correspondence of John Locke. Ed. E. H. De Beer. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Mendelssohn, Moses (1974). Gesammelte Schriften .Jubilaumsausgabe. Begun by L 'Elbogen, J. Guttman, and E. Mittwoch, continued by Alexander Altmann. Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt: Friedrich Fromann Verlag Gunther Holzboog. Newton, Isaac (1728). De Mundi Systemate Liber. London- printed for Fayram. Newton, Isaac (1999). The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Trans. L Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman assisted by Julia Brudenz. Berkeley: University of California Press. Newton, Isaac (2004). Philosophical Wlitings. Ed. Andrew Janiak. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Niethammer, Friedrich (1795). "Von denAnsprachen des gemeinen Verstandes an die Philosophie." In Philosophisches Journal einer Gesellschaft Teutscher Gelehrten, 1: 1-45. Nietharnmer, Friedrich (1995). Friedlich Immanuel Niethammer: Korrespondenzmit dem Herbert- und Erhard-Kreis. Ed. W. Baum. Wien: Turia und Kant. Paul, Jean (1992). Clavis Fichtiana seu Leibgeberiana; translated in Jean Paul: A Reader, ed. T.]. Casey, trans. E. Casey, Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins Univesrsity Press. Pistorins, Hermann Andreas (1786). Review of Erlautenmgen aber des Herrn Professor Kant Critik der reinen Vernunft von Joh. Schultze. In Algemeine deutsche Bibliothek 66(1): 92-123. Reprinted in Landau (ed.) (1991). Sassen, Brigitte (trans. and ed.) (2000). Kant's Early Critics: The Empbicist Critique of Kant's Theoretical Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schlosser, Johann Georg (1795). Plato's Briefe nebst einer historischen Einleitung und Anmerkungen. Konigsberg: Friedrich Nikolovius. Schmid, Carl Christian Erhard (1790; 2nd enlarged edition, 1792). Versuch etner Moralphllosophie. jena: Croker. Schmid, Carl Christian Erhard (1788). Worterbuch zum leichtem Gebrauch del' Kantlschen Schliften nebst emer Abhandlung. 2nd ed. jena: Croker. Schopenhauer, Arthur (1965). On the Basis of Morality. Trans. E. F.]. Payne. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill. Schultz, Johann (1785). Review of Ulrich, Johann August Heinrich (1785), Institutiones Logicae et Metaphyslcae,jena: Croker. In Allgemeine LiteraturZeitung (13 December 1785): 297-299. Reprinted in Landau (ed.) (1991). Schulze, Gottlob Ernst (1792). Aenesidemus oder aberdie Fundamente der von dem Herm Professor Reinhold in lena gelieferten Elementar-Phllosophie Nebst elner Ver-

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teidigung des Skeptizjsmus gegen die Anmaftungen del' Vemunftkritik. Reprinted (1911). Berlin: Reuther and Reichard. New edition (1996). ed, Manfred Frank, Hamburg: Meiner. I use the original pagination also given in this edition. I have consulted the translation of an extract in Harris and di Giovanni (2000). Spinoza, Benedict (1925). Spinoza Opera. Ed. Carl Gebhardt. Heidelberg: Carl Winter. Spinoza, Benedict (2002). Complete Works. With the translations of Samuel Shirley. Ed. Michael L. Morgan. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company. Staudlin, Carl Friedrich (1794). Geschichte undGeist des Skepticismus. Leibzig; Crusius, Suarez. Francisco (1947) On the Various Kinds of Distinctions (Disputationes Metaphysicae, Disputatio VII, De variis distinctionumgeneribus). Milwaukee: Marquette University Press. Wolff, Christian (l964- ). Gesammelte Werke. Eds. J. Ecole et a1. Hildeshetm: Georg Olms,

3. Secondary Texts Abela. Paul (2002). Kant's Empirical Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Adams, Marilyn McCord (1982). "Universals in the Early Fourteenth Century." In Norman Kretzmann, Anthony Kenny, and Jan Pinborg (eds.), The Camblidge History of Later Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Adickes, Erich (1920). Kants Opus Postumum dargestellt undbeurteilt. Berlin: Reuther & Richard. Allison, Henry (1980). "Kant's Critique of Spinoza." In Richard Kennington (ed.), The Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press. Allison, Henry (1983). Kant's Transcendental Idealism: An Interpretation andDefense. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Allison, Henry (1988). 'Justification and Freedom in the Crftlque oj Practical Reason." In Forster (ed.) (1988). Allison, Henry (1990). Kant's Theory of Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Allison, Henry (1996). Idealism and Freedom: Essays on Kant's Theoretical andPractical Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Allison, Henry (200]). Kant's Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Clitique of Aesthetic Judgment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 'Allison, Henry (2004). Kant's Transcendental Idealism: An Interpretation andDefense. Revised and Enlarged Edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Altmann. Alexander (973). Moses Mendelssohn. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.

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Ameriks, Karl (1978). "Kant's Transcendental Deduction as a Regressive Argument." Kant-Studien, 69: 273-287. Ameriks, Karl (1982). Kant's Theory of Mind: An Analysis of theParalogisms of Pure Reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . Ameriks, Karl (1992). "The Critique of Metaphysics: Kant and Traditional Ontology." In Guyer (ed.) (1992). Ameriks, Karl (2000a). Kant and the Fate of Autonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ameriks, Karl (2000b). Kant's Theory of Mind: An Analysis of theParalogisms of Pure Reason: New Edition. Oxford.Oxford University Press.. Ameriks, Karl (2001). The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ameriks, Karl (2003a). Interpreting Kant's Critiques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ameriks, Karl (2003b). "Idealism from Kant to Berkeley." In Stephen Gersh and Dermot Moran (eds.), Eriugena, Berkeley, and the Idealist Tradition. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. Ameriks, Karl, Paul, Franks, Dieter Schonecker, and jurgen Stolzenberg (eds.) (2005), TheYearbook of German Idealism, Volume III: German Idealism and Con-

temporary Analytic Philosophy. Berlin: de Gruyter. Anscombe, G. E. M. (1971). Causality and Determination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Anscombe, G. E. M (1975). "The First Person." In Samuel Cuttenplan (ed.), Mind and Language. Oxford. Clarendon Press. Arendt, Dieter (ed.) (1974). Del' Nihilismus als Phanomen del' Geistesgeschichte. Darmstadt: Wissenschaltliche Buchgesellschaft. Armstrong, D. M., C. B. Martin, and U. T. Place (1996). Dispositions: A Debate. Ed. T. Crane. London: Routledge. Austin, J. L. (1979). "Are There a priori Concepts?" In Austin, Philosophical Papers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Barnes.jonathan (1997). "The Beliefsof a Pyrrhonist." In Burnyeat and Frede (eds.) (1997). Baurn, Manfred (2000). "The Beginnings of Schelling's Philosophy of Nature." In Sedgwick (ed.) (2000). Beck, Lewis White (1960). Commentary on Kant's Critique' of Practical Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Beck, LewisWhite (1965). Studies in thePhilosophy of Kant. Indianapolis, IN: BabbsMerrill. Beck, Lewis White (1978). Essays on Kant and Hume. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Beiser, Frederick (1987). The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kantto Fichte. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Strawson, P. F. (1997). "Kant's New Foundations for Metaphysics." In Strawson, Entity and Identity. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Stroud, Barry (1968). "Transcendental Arguments." Journal of Philosophy 65(9): 241-256. Stroud, Barry (1983). "Kant and Skepticism." In Myles Burnyeat (ed.), The Skeptical Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press. Stroud, Barry (1984). The Significance of Philosophical Skepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stroud, Barry (1994). "Kantian Argument, Conceptual Capacities, and Invulnerability." In Paolo Parrini (ed.), Kantand Contemporary Epistemology. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Stroud, Barry (1999). "The Goal of Transcendental Arguments." In Stern (ed.) (1999). Sturma, Dieter (1985). Kant aberSelbstbewusstsein. Hildesheim: alms. Sturma, Dieter (1993). "Odyssee des Geistes. Schellings Projekt einer naturphllosophischen Geschichte des Selbstbewufstseins." In H. M. Baumgartner and W. Jacobs (eds.), Philosophie der Subjektivitiit? Zur Bestimmung des neuzeitlichen Philosophierens. Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt: Frommarm-holzboog, Sturma, Dieter (1995). "Prareflexive Freiheit und menschliche Selbstbestimmung." In O. Hoffe and A. Pieper (eds.), F.W.]. Schelling Uber das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit. Berlin: Akademie. Sturma, Dieter (2000). "The Nature of Subjectivity: Schelling's Philosophy of Nature and the Mystery of Its Origins." In Sedgwick (ed.) (2000). Suss, Theobald (1974). "Der Nihilismus bei F. H. jacobi." In Arendt (ed.) (1974). Taylor, Charles (1972). "The Opening Arguments of the Phenomenology." In Maclntyre (ed.) (1972). Taylor, Charles (1975). Hegel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Taylor, Charles (J 995). "The Validity of Transcendental Arguments." In Taylor, Philosophical Arguments. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Thompson, Manley (1972). "Singular Terms and Intuitions in Kant's Epistemology." Review of Metaphysics, 26(2): 314~343. Vaihinger, Hans (1911 with 9 subsequent editions; the 10th edition of 1927 was reprinted in 1986). Die Philosophie des alsob. System dertheoretischen, praktischen

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Warren, Daniel (2001). Reality and Impenetrability in Kant's Philosophy of Nature. London: Routledge. Wells, Norman (1966). "Descartes on Distinction." In Frederick]. Adelmann (ed.), The Questfor the Absolute. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 104-134. Westphal, Kenneth R. (l989a). Hegel's Epistemological Realism. Dordrecht and Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Westphal, Kenneth R. (1989b). "Hegel's Attitude toward Jacobi in the Third Attitude of Thought toward Objectivity.''' Southem]oumal of Philosophy, 27(1): 135-155. Westphal, Kenneth (2000). "Kant, Hegel, and the Fate of 'the' Intuitive Intellect." In Sedgwick (ed.) (2000). Westphal, Kenneth (2003). Hegel's Epistemology: A Philosophical Introduction to the Phenomenology oj Spirit. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. Wilkerson, T. E. (1976). Kant's Critique oj Pure Reason. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Willaschek, Markus (1992). Praktische VemunJt: Handlungstheorie undMoralbegnmdung bei Kant. Stuttgart, Weimar: J. B. Metzler. Williams, Bernard (1985). Ethics and the Limits oj Philosophy. London: Fontana. Williams, Michael (1996). Unnatural Doubts: Epistemological Realism and the Basis of Skepticism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Williams, Michael (2001). Problems oj Knowledge: A Critical Introduction to Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wilson, Margaret (1999). "Superadded Properties: The Limits of Mechanism in Locke." In Wilson, Ideas and Mechanism: Essays on Early Modem Philosophy. Princeton, Nj: Princeton University Press. Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1958). The Blue and Brown Books. Oxford: Blackwell. Wolff, Michael (1995). Die Vollstandigkeit der kantischen UrteilstaJel. Mit einem Essay uber Freges 'BegriffsschriJt.' Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann. Wolff, Robert Paul (1963). Kant's Theory oj Mental Activity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wood, Allen W. (1969). Kant's Moral Theology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Wood, Allen W. (1978). Kant's Rational Theology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Wood, Allen W. (1990). Hegel's Ethical Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . Wood, Allen W. (1991). "Fichte's Philosophical Revolution." Philosophical Topics, 19(2): 1-28. Wood, Allen W. (1999). Kant's Ethical Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Index

Absolute: See also Agrippan trilemma; God; Infinite First principle, 10, 12, 17,21,29,50,53, 62,75,82,137,143,175,191,225237,253--254,259,261,274,275, 298,313,318-325,327,334,336, 340,341,349,350,353,367,368,369, 372,373n86,375-377,380, 389, 390, 391 Freedom, 267-273, 284 Ground, 19-20, 23-24, 27, 28-38, 43, 46, 47,48,50,53,62,63,73-75,80,81, 85,92,99-108, in, 114, 122,128, 144,163, 164, 173, 175, 190, 197,204, 208,216,217,222,240,241,248,253254,262,265,275,288,298,333,349, 354,357,366,369,370--371,375-377, 380,387,391,392,393 1,80, 85nl, 140n90, 144.225,228,253, 301,312,314.341,345,352,355, 357n48, 359-360 idealism, 144,338.364.365-371, 374n88.378,379-384,386n2 knowledge, 375-376, 378 motion, 14 necessity. 23, 29, 30, 31, 45, 47, 136, 149, 345 nihilism and, 163-165, 192-194 no~I,85nl, 143,225 totality and, 104, 128-130, 145, 192,313, 333,334,372 192-193,253,377,393 Activity: real, as first principle, 317-325 real vs. ideal, 317, 349 Actuality Problem: See alsoTranscendental arguments Schulze's version of, 244-248

Maimonian version of, 249-254, 321, 347, 365-370,389-390 construction in intuition and, 257-258 Aesthetic taste, 332-333 Agrippan skepticism, 9, 17-19, 203, 257, 392. See also Agrippan trilemma empirical and, 63, 65. 74,386 faculties and, 51-52, 82 Fichte and, 274, 275 German idealism and, 81-82, 174, 206 Humean skepticism and, 149 Jacobi and, 163-164, 276n20, 282 Kant's critical response to, 35,37-38,5253,62,63,77-78,206,282 Kant's pre-critical response to, 29 l.eibniz and, 23 Newton and, 25, 27-28 nihilism and, 173n60 physics and, 24 Reinhold and, 274 Third Antinomy and, 98 transcendental arguments and, 258, 261, 274 Agrippan trilemma: See also Heterogeneity Requirement; Derivation Monism; Holistic Monism; Agrippan skepticism; 8-10,17-19,87,99,149,163-164,166, 170,193,197,206,259,262,334,358, 369,380,386--387 escape from, 99-103, lI3-123, 125, 145, 164165,217,222,225,226,229,232, 236,264,280-281,320,330,333,349, 361,369,376,386-087,390 fucultiesand,51-52,53,62-78,81-82 Kant and, 37-38,39,47, 50-51, 81-82, 91-93, 107-108 physics, metaphysics and, 20, 27. 29, 32, 35,386

421

422

Index

Allison, Henry, 16n6, 40n45, 62n97, 68n107, 112n50, 156n28, 186n88, 264,265n6, 278-279,285n39,289-290 Ameriks, Karl, 3n3, 4n4, 16n6, 45n58, 48n63, 57n83, 122, 157n28, 161-162, 184n85,203n7,215n30, 218nn36,37, 240n68,264,266-267n7,279n28, 284n38,305n80,306n83,310n96, 311n98,313-319,328-329,334n145, 360-361 Anachronism, 5, 6, 202,206 Analogicalpredication, 31-33, 134-140, 299300 Analytic: commitment to in itself, 43-45, 48 necessity, 146, 209-210 tradition of philosophy, 2-4, 60n91 , 202, 176-177,202,206,210,305-306n81, 306,307,385-393 Anscombe, G, E, M" 180n87, 305-307 Annihilation, lO,162n38,163, 164-165, 170171,172,175,194,195,197,198,205, 238, 328, 332, 372, 376. See also Nihilism ofSchmid,275-276n20 Anscombe, G.E.M., 305-306 Antinomies, 68, 82n135, 98, 123, 127, 137, 192-193,341, 346, 375·~376. See also Third Antinomy of thinking, 189190, 199,346 Apagogicmethod, 256-257 Appearance: See also Empirical; In itself; Thing in itself thing in itself and,l3, 33, 36, 39-51, 64, 67,74,76,78,107,252 concept of, 44-45 knowledge of, 38, 94 in itself and, 91-93, 142 Pistorius on, 94-98 freedom and, 105, 114-117, 262, 267, . 270n12, 271-273, 280, 327, 333 empirical and transcendental construals of, 155-161 nihilism and, 171-173, 198n112 necessary connections among, 178-188 A priori proof, 31-32, 254 Asymmetry: of causation, 128 derivational, 129-130 epistemic, 279

of grounding, 50 of pre-Newtonian force, 26 Atheism, 88, 130, 152n13, 214n26 Controversy, 219, 316, 354 Ausun.]; L., 201n1, 290n46 Autonomy: See also Freedom; Heteronomy; Reason as intrinsic property, 86 role in system, 144, 313-325, 341, 359, 366 spontaneity and, 263, 264 heteronomy and, '268-270,334-335, 383 Factum of reason and, 279, 291, 368, 376 universal acknowledgment and, 327-332 Beck, Jakob Sigismund

Standpoint from Which Critical Philosophy is to BeJudged, 350 Beck, lewis White, 112n50, 177n78, 278279 Beiser, Frederick, 3n3, 15n4, 144n94, 171n57, 171n57, 176n65, 177, 212n19, 214n27, 215nn28,29,313-319, 364n39,368n74,386n2 Beliefs, locating, 308-309 Bell, David, 201nl, 202n4 Berkeley, George, 156,386 Bildung, 330 Biology, 187-188 Bird, Graham, 16n6 Brandom, Robert, 4, 307n87 Broughton,Janet,202n2 Buchdahl, Gerd, 186n88 Burge, Tyler, 4, 202n2 Catnap, Rudolf, 390n8 Cartesianism, 25 Cartesian skepticism, 148n52, 149, 176, 178, 184, 222, 261 Castaneda, Hector-Neri, 305-306 Categorical imperative, 55, 301, 316n107, 322, 334n119, 352n34. See also Moral law Categories/categorial principles, 9, 26, 37, 43, 49,52,56,59,61-62,66,67, 70, 76~ 77,78,79,80,82,83,93,103,109, 115,117,123, 149-150n7, 176-180, 181-182,185,187,196,204,205,207, 240,245-246,263,277,280,298,300,

327,333,334,351,354,381,390.see

Index

also Causality; Community; Metaphysical Deduction; Transcendental Deductions construction of, 342-349 empirical deduction 0[, 182-184 German idealists vs. Kant on, 85n9 Maimon on, 181n89 Causality, 20, 29n26, 31, 38,43, 78, 85nl, 94-95,97, 107-108n38, 137, 139, 153, 159n34, 169n52, 174n62, 179, 185186,192,244-246,252,260,264-266, 272-273,283,289,291-293,297, 314nl05. See also Freedom; Second Analogy; Third Antinomy infinite and, 98-106, 113-128 Hume vs, Kant on, 149-151, 182 Maimon on science vs. everyday and, 180181,183n83,285 Cavell, Stanley, 4, 148n4, 198-199, 209n12 Chisholm, Roderick, 148n2, 309n94 Christianity, 263, 370-371, 390 Clarke, Samuel, 27,119,130,133 Cognition, 283-284, 294-295,311 divine, 75,141-142,182,300 first personal, 294, 310 matter vs. form of, 67, 75, 7~77 practical, 41,-280,284-285,294-295, 297, 302-303, 31~-318 theoretical, 4MB, US, 264--266,284, 300,301,317-318,341 transcendental vs, empirical, 48--49, 342349 Collins, Arthur, 156nn26, 28, 157-161, 178n69 Common sense/understanding, 82n135, 70n135,181n79,196,200nlJ4,238, 388n5 Scottish, 207, 222 Community: dynamic, 26, 29-36,38,52,85, 92,118119, 121, 125, 135, 140,363 human, 390 philosophical,388-389 social, 325, 388, 389 Conant, James, 147nl Concept: See also Categories; Construction; Intuition complete, 23, 30-31, 50, 72--73, 75, 348 complex, 98 conceptual necessity, 209--~1O conceptual space, 73, 76

423

and construction of objects, 190 Hegel on, 377-379 and instance, 90 incomplete, 76 intuition and, 46, 204n9, 218-219, 247 middle-, 213,216,223 and nonconceptual content, 55n78, 57n81, 199n114 Schelling on, 380-384 thick and thin, 165-166, 168 Consciousness, See also Moral consciousness; Self-consciousness; Principle of Consciousness; Transcendental unity of apperception Factum of, 229-232, 237, 241, 255, 258, 267,282-283,298,311,315,373-374, 375-376 Fichte on, 228, 304--305 pre-representational, 220, 223-229 pure, 304, 341 Reinhold on, 223-224 shapes of, 140n91, 375-376 Constitutive: acta, 225, 230-232, 258 knowledge, 182, 191 principles, 188, 3J6n107, 367 Construction: See also Intellectual intuition; Intuition in intellectual intuition, 257-258, 339-349,351 in pure sensible intuition, 190-191, 210, 342-347 Continental tradition of philosophy, 2--3, 379 on sensibility and understanding, 60n91 Conventionalism: transcendental arguments and, 247n86 Copernican revolution/tum, 14, 37-38, 113, 119,136-137,144, 159n33, 172, 215216,238 Creation, 358 God and, 23, 31, 34, 50, 52, 110, 114116,126,127,136,300,303,363,381 Davidson, Donald, 19n1l, 200n114, 202n2 Deduction, 292-293, 297-298. See also Deduction of Freedom; Metaphysical Deduction; Transcendental Deduction circularity of, 293-294 empirical, of categonal principles, 182-183 of Spinozism, 96

424

Index _-------------------------

~._-~._-~ ..

Deduction of Freedom, 106n35, 112, 207, 262-263,276-298,299,300,302,334335,336,366,376 Derrida, Jacques, 2 Descartes, Rene, 131-~132, 133-134, ]44 on infinite, 65-66 skepticism of, 149n7 on substance, 109 idealism and, 157 Despmr, 150-152, 163, 188, 196 Determinate negation, 193, 338, 340, 346348,349-350,373,375-376 Dialectical method, 12, 191-193, 316n107, 338-339,341, 349, 353~354, 373, 377, 380 Di Giovanni, George, 175n63 Diez, Immanuel Carl, 237n65 Distinctions: See also Faculties between faculties, 55, 56-57, 59-60 Descartes V5. Leibniz on, 54n76 formal, 54-55 Holistic Monism and, 106-107 modal, 54n76, 58, 76 rational, 54n 76, 58 real, 54-55, 59-60 Dogmatism, 192-193, 242, 328, 351, 375 criticism and, 326 moral, 266-267 Donagan, Alan, 145n96, 390n8 Dualism, 7, 9. See also Empirical; Faculties; Holistic Monism; Monism; Transcendental absolute grounding and, 37-38 ambiguity and, 197 Cartesian, 56 Cartesian interpretation of, 158 cognition of the in itself and, 41, 50-51 definition of, 82 Derivation Monism and, 17, 19-20, 79, 83, 107 ~faculties and, 52, 79 German idealism and, 60, 79, 81-83, 203 Hegel on, 192 Holistic Monism and, 107-108, 147 interpretations of, 39, 154, 158--161 Maimon on, 52, 59, 158, 176, 187 of Kant and monism of German idealists, 14-15

Kant's Inaugural Dissertation on, 33-34, 37, 135-136 Reinhold on, 52, 57,59-60, 213, 217219,235 and Spinozism, 86-87, 93 transcendental idealism and, 158 Dualistic Demand, 10, 20-21, 24-25, 31-35, 36,37-38,47-48,52,59,261

Earliest System-Programme of Gemlan Idealism, 326 Egoism: general, 287-288 speculative, 156, 356 Elitism, 375 Empirical: See also Empirical idealism; Empirical realism; Transcendental deduction, 182-183 everyday vs. scientific and, 82, 174-175, 234,262,264,312,332,357,374,385, 386,387 practical reason, 270, 369 relational character of, 41-42,64-65,74, 77, 92, 107, 120, 123-124, 135, 140, 142, 173, 333 standpoint, 9, 82, 108,262,334-335,359, 388,390,364,385-386 transcendental and, 48-49, 115, 144-145, 156n27, 158-160, 161, 173, 197, 200nI14,217,218n36,235,243,259, 355,357 will, 268-270, 281n31 Empirical idealism, 48n64, 154n18, 199n114, See also Transcendental idealism. Agrippan skepticism and, 386 Hegel on Reinhold's misinterpretation of Fichte's idealism as, 355 Jacobi's misinterpretation of Kant's idealism as, 157-158, 160 Jacobi's rejection of, 161n35, 170n54 Kant's refutation of, 153-154nI8, 211n16 misinterpretation of German idealism as, 161,355,388n5 nihilism and, 171 Reinhold's misinterpretation of Kant's idealism as, 161, 198n112 Schulze on, 243 Spinoza and, 170n54

t

1 Index

I j 1

Empirical realism, 154n18, 161, 197, 199n114, 357,360 on basis of transcendental idealism, 386387 Empiricism, 151, 199n141 Engstrom, Stephen, 148n4, 177n68 Enlightenment, 195, 212 Reinhold .011, 213 Ens pe~rectissimum, 134 Ens realissimum, 126, 138, 207, 298, 334, 349, 373 God as, 113-114,135,299 intrinsic properties and, 106 omnitudo reaiitatis and, 104, 106, 333 Erhard, Johann Benjamin, 209, 237n65 Erhcnntnis, 283-284 Esoteric/obscure/unintelligible, 4, 55, 60, 70, 76, 82n135, 141,213,215-216,242, 258,263,294-298,326,327-333,335, 374-375,378-379,381,392 Ethics: of freedom, 351-352 reflection and, 168 Eudid, 349, 351, 352 Evans, Gareth, 55n78 Everyday/ordinary, 9-10, 18nlO, 147, 151n12, 159n33, 160, 162, 18~-181, 183,188-189,193,196,199nI13,205, 206, 211n16,214,224, 228, 309,334, 335,337,357,369 Actuality Problem and, 251, 253-254, 258, 323-324 empirical and, 82, 174-175, 234, 262, 264,312,332,357,374,385,386,387 realism, 222-224 nihilism and, 165, 170-174, 198n112, 358 redemption of, 194-197 Evil,270, 282n33,330,370, 382-383 Existentialism, 379 Experience, 73,151, 198n112, 199n114, 233,236, 255,257, 271n12, 277,295 aesthetic, 370 causal judgments, 186 conditions of, 17,49,56,85, 120, 151n12, 160, 173, 176, 182, 193, 204, 205, 241, 246,259,262,297,298,361,365 everyday vs, natural scientific, 188, 196, 205 everyday vs, philosophical, 312

425

Factum of, J 53, 205, 239 and Factum of reason, 260,280, 281, 292, 349 forms of, 93, 342 grounding in absolute, 190,207,218,228, 240,251,321,349,351n31,391 judgments of, 177-180, 184-185, 188, 189,206 Kant's usage, 177-179, 184, 211nI6, 216 limits of, 63 objects of, 43, 44, 74, 78, 153, 157, 159, 169,173,193,204,205,241,259 religious, 370-371 skepticism about actuality of, 153, 176189,210,236,241,251 skepticism about possibility of, 154, 189190,210 and transcendental arguments, 153, 201, 205,210,248 V.I. transcendental cognition, 48-49 whole of, 67, 92 Facttlm, 204, 260, 383 of consciousness, 229-232, 237, 241, 255, 258,267,282-283,298,311,315,373374,375-376 of everyday practices, 196 of experience, 153, 205,239 fact CTatsoclle) vs. act (Tathandlung), 233, 236,250-251,273-277,298,311-312, 350n28,373-374 first-personal singular, 368 of mathematics, 258 of morality, 258, 333, 334-335, 368 of reason, 11,262-263,271-273, 277n23, 278n25, 279-283, 289-293,298, 304n'/6, 318, 326--327, 330--331, 334335,349,354,366,368,370--371,374375, 377, 383 of science, 38,151,175, 182-183, 184, 188, 193, 205 of skepticism, 377 usage of, 278-279 Faculties: See also Distinctions; Freedom of the will; Intellectual intuition; Intuition; Judgment; Reason; Representation; Sensibility; Understanding and the Agrippan trilemma, 51-52 desiderata for account of, 55-56

426

Index

Faculties (cantinued) distinctions between, 55-60 and exercises, 55 faculty of desire, 267n8 German idealist views of, 7, 55-60, 82-83, 140n91,143n93,218 in Kant's Inaugural Dissertation, 33-36 Kant's critical doctrine of, 76-77, 82-83, 218 Kant's reconception of, 63-64 Faith: Hegel on, 327 Jacobi on, 101n28, 162, 164-165, 170, 172--173,195, 198n112, 214, 380 Kant on, 213 Reinhold on, 60, 213-214, 218, 271 Fichte,Johann Gottlieb, 1, 3, 12, 60n90, 200n114. See also the I; intellectual intuition; positing Annals oj Philosophical Tone, 367 Attemptat a New Presentation oj the Wissenschaftslehre (including First Introduction and Second Introduction), 140n90,242n73,301-313,316317n107, 319-·320n110, 321n113, 322n115, 330n140, 332n142, 341, 350n27,358n50 categorical imperative and, 301-304, 316n107,322 on consciousness, 228, 304-305 Critique oj All Revelation, 267, 300n67 Crystal Clear Report, 332n143 and Derivation Monism, 79--80 development of, 315-316 on empirical and transcendental standpoints, 82n135, 161,213 on esoteric character of philosophy, 327333 on Factum of reason, 271-278, 335 on first person, 206 Foundations of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre, 80,85nl,lll,314,316nl07,329,341, 344,359 Foundations of Natural Right, 307, 315nl06, 316n107,322-325 on freedom, 106n7, 271-276 on geometry, 79-80, 337, 351 on Holistic Monism, 140, 143-144, 253, 323,364,366

on intellectual intuition, 191, 301-321, 338-339,340-349,364 on individuation, 174 on justification, 241-242 on natural science, 174,366-369 on nihilism, 194 on positing, 357-258· on postulates, 260, 326, 350-351 on practical reason, 274-275 on Principle of Consciousness, 219-237 Private Meditations, 250-251, 257-258, 329, 342-343, 351 publishing career of, 316n107 on Reinhold, 60, 203, 211--212, 225-226, 228-229,232-233,271-272 Review of Aenesidemus, 225-237, 254, 277278,341 Review oj Creuzer, 271-274 on Schulze, 250, 251-252, 254 on sell-consciousness, 225-229, 304-313 on skepticism, 274 on Spinozisrn, 84, 85n2, 86,106, 111, 137n86 alleged subjective idealism of, 144-145, 354-371 Systemoj Ethics, 324-325 on transcendental arguments, 201, 208, 241--242,249-255 Vowtian oj Man, 174n62, 314-315, 362-364,368 WissenschaJtslehre Nova Methado, 800130, 8In133, 82n135, 226-229,250091, 302n71,315-318,321-325,326,342, 348-350 Zurich Lectures, 342,344-345 Finite. See Infinite First personal: possessives, 205-206 singular Factum, 368 transcendental arguments as, 246-247 Fogelin, Robert, 17n8, 18nn9, 10 Force, 186. See also Community derivative, 26 gravitational, 26 primitive, 26 Formalism, 188-189,285,365-366,382 Forster, Eckart, 63-64, 92n15, 153n17 Forster, Michael, 3n3, 173n60, 377n91 Fourth Paralogism, 157, 158

Index

427

Frank, M2n~ed, 215nn28,30, 237n65, 241n69 Freedom, I, 13. See also Autonomy; Deduction of Freedom; Factum of reason; Heteronomy; Postulates; Reciprocity Thesis as absolute causation, 99-~ 100, 260 as Archunedean point, 320n110 cognition of, 281, 293-294, 296 divine and human, 105, 115-116 ethics of, 351-352 Fichte on, 323, 364 as illusion, 106, 321 nature and, 366-367 and nihilism, 168-169,174,384 practical, 264-266, 298, 300, 319, 341, 352,353,364 and preconditions for grasping system, 328333, 335 Reinhold on,269-270 Schmid on, 268-269 skepticism about, 266-267, 272-274, 284285,289-290,298,360-361 systematicity and, 143n93, 260, 380-384 things in themselves and, 40 transcendental idealism and, 112-116 transcendental realism and, 117-123 Freemasons, 212-213 Frege, Gottlob, 50, 204 Freudenthal, Gideon, 187n94 Friedman, Michael, 32n30, 67n106, 72n116, 92n15, 148n4, 153n17, 176n64, 178n72, 186-188,205n9, 2Un17, 346347

cosmological proof of, 28 creation and, 23, 31, 34, 50, 52, 110, 114116,126,127,136,300,303,363,381 and Derivability Monism, 25, 63, 77, 79 as ens petfectissimum, 34, 35-36 as ens realissimum, 32, 50, 65, 66, 68, 75, 77, 79, 93n16, 106-107, 113-114, 135, 298-300 Pichte and, 80, 303, 356, 364, 368 finite and, 138-139,301,380 formation of concept of, 64, 75, 138~139 freedom of, 105, 115~~116 Hegel on, 13,326-327,370-371,377 as infinite, 21, 28, 65, 75, 111, 127, 129131,134,136 Jacobi on, 164 Kant and moral belief in, 294 Kant and practical cognition of, 41n48, 81, 294 Kant's pre-critical proof of, 28-29, 31-32, 69, 93n16 Kant and rational faith in, 213, 263, 267 Leibniz on, 27-28, 50,110, 130, 133, 141142,337 Metaphysical Deduction from idea of, 71, 75-80,81,263,300,334,339,346347,349,373 Newton on, 27-29, 31, 32, 130-135,226 ontological proof of, 29, 31, 303 as pantokrator, 27 postulation of, 81, 126n66, 260, 298, 299, 326,351-353,372 properties of, 54n77, 75, 106-107, ]27, ]37-140,299-300,340,364

Gadarner, Huns-Georg, 2 Gassendi, Pierre, 131

Schlosser on, 295 self-cognition of, 76,124, 126, 141-142, 300,337,340 space and, 28-29, 32, 124-125, 130-133, 135,136,226,339-340 Spinoza and, 88n5, 95-97, 109, 1] 6, 137, 141··142, 169n52, 171, 337 spirit-nature of, 136 substance and, 43, 109, 1l0, 116 thought and, ]41-]42 time and, 124-125, 128, 135, 226 understanding of, 138, 299 will of, 23, 25, 27, 28, 138,299 wisdom of, 21, 23, 27, 107038

Scl~1I'lngon,84,352,382

Geach, Peter, 305-309 Geometry, 55, 137, 190,260,337. See also Construction; Intuition; Mathematics first principle of, 79-80 and intuition, 343-347 and postulates, 350-352 synthetic a priori status of, 211 transcendental idealism and, 45n59 God, 352, 353, 363, 390. See also Agrippan trilcmma

as absolute ground, 20-21, 24-25, 28, 32, 35,43,50,118,122,127,226

428

Index

Goodman, Nelson, 306 Gravity, 27n20 Grier, Michelle, 68n107 Guyer, Paul, 16n6, 65n100, 68n108, 81n132, 127n27, 177n68, 184-185n86,256n98 Hamann.johann Georg, 109-110n42, 195 Harmony: pie-established, 23, 30-31 between substances, 141-142 Harris, H, S., 371n81 Hartkopf, Werner, 346 Hartsoeker, Nicholas, 27n20 Heath, Peter, 356-359 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich;T, 3, 4nn6, 7,7,12,87,140,199,237,316nl07, 326, 338 on absolute idealism, 144 and determinate negation, 346, 373-378 dialectical method of, 191-193, 341

Difference between Fichte's and Schelling's System of Philosophy, 355, 366-371 on empirical and transcendental standpoints, 82n135 Encyclopedia Logic, 80nDO, 143n93, 377n95 and esoteric character of philosophy, 80n135,257,374-375 on facts of consciousness, 260-261, 263 and Factum of reason, 375-377 Faith and Knowledge, 365n69, 370~·371 on Fichte, 354-355, 361, 365-371 and first person, 206 on God, 13, 326-327 on Holistic Monism, 84-85 How the Ordinary Understanding takes

Philosophy, 13

.

on individuation, 174 on intuition, 191,337,339 and jacobi, 191-193, 379n97 and Kant, 161,376 logic of, 377-378 and Mairnon, 192,378-379, 381-382 On the Relationship of Skepticism to

Philosophy, 191-193 and Naturphilosophie, 147, 175-176, 191, 197,370 nonmetaphysical readings of, 16-17, 388n6

Phenomenology of Spirit, 140n91 , 193,375378 and Reinhold, 203n7, 212 Schelling on, 379-384 on Schulze, 241 Science of Logic, 80n130, 376-377n91, 377n94 on skepticism, 173n60, 191-193, 241 on Spinoza, 84, 137-138n86, 192,371 on systematicity, 143n93 and transcendental arguments, 202nn3, 5, 240,241,249,257 and Transcendental Ideal, 80 Heidegger, Martin, 59n89, 144n95, 356 Henrich, Dieter, 4n4, 59n89, 6On91, 148n4, 176n66, 212n19, 220n45, 225, 237n65, 264n5,304n79,310nn95,96 Herbert, Baron Franz Paul von, 209, 241 Herman, Barbara, 289-290 Herz , Marcus, 36-37 Heterogeneity Requirement, 102-103, 132, 137,141,274,281 Holistic Monism and, 128, 141,208,227 Newton and, 132-137 Reinhold and, 229-235 transcendental arguments and, 241 transcendental idealism and, 115, 208, 227 transcendental realism and, 117-118 Heteronomy, 297, 311, 330, 334-335, 382383 Holderlin, Friedrich, 237, 326 Holistic Monism: See also Monadic Individualism; Spinoza combined with Derivation Monism, 129·130,137,138,143,144,200,203,228 argument for, 95-108 definition of, 85-86, 107 dualism and, 107-108 Fichte and, 228, 253, 317, 323, 348, 364, 366 Fichte's ascription to Kant of, 253, 312 Heterogeneity Requirement and, 128, I 29130, 137,208 Jacobi and ascription to Kant, 88-93 Kant on transcendental realism and, 112123 Kant's refutation of, 123-130 Pistorius and deduction from Kant, 93-98

Index

Monadic Individualism and, 108, 111-113, 141-142,145,312,340,333-334 and nihilism, 147, 167, 323 and Reinhold, 215-216n28 Hookway, Christopher 201nl Hope, 63, 150-152, 188. See alsa Despair Horstmann, Rolf-Peter, 4n114, 6, 14n3 Hume, David, 311127, 87, 98,141,146,148152,154,164, 178,203, 214n27, 232, 243,244-245,253. See alsa Humean Skepticism; Naturalism, Humean Humean skepticism, 222 Kant on, 149-151,184, 197,207 Maimon on, 180, 181-2 and neo-Humean skepticism, 194·-197, 205 Reinhold on, 216 Schulze on, 244-245 Humiliation, 288, 289, 376 the I, 80n128, 81n133, 1431193,225,228, 253,301, 311n98, 312,314,341,345, 355. See also Self-ascription; Selfconsciousness; Transcendental unity of apperception; Positing; Subjectivism Ideality: See also Empirical; Empirical idealism; Transcendental; Transcendental idealism; empirical vs. transcendental construals of, 157-158,160, 198nI12,355, 388n5 Leibniz on, 24 reality vs., 49-50,386 Illuminati, 212, 235 Illusion: dialectical, 41, 6669, 152, 256 optical, 167 psychological, 181, 195,251,255,274 transcendental,68n107 Immediacy, 138 of act vs, content, 166-167 actuality and, 307 of consciousness, 220 'of cognition via a priori construction, 191, 242 of divine cognition, 141 of everyday, 164-165, 172, 174, 194-196, 214 of feeling of certainty, 238 of unities of fact and value, 165 Holistic Monism and, 161

429

of ideas vs. objects, 149, 153n18, 171n57 of intuition, 44,89,284,295,378 of justification, 238-239 of mathematical cognition, 141, 182, 190 of moral consciousness, 267,280-282,301304 nihilism and, 165, 190, 194-196 of normatlvity, 166, 168-169, 280-281, 289,373,374 of perception, 164-·165, 168-170, 190, 227-228 reciprocal recognition and, 323 of self-ascription, 305-309,348-349,373 of self-consciousness, 219-227, 305~310, 314n105,323 and transcendental arguments, 245, 247, 261nl Immunity to error through misidentification, 31On95 Individualism, 145 Individuality, 324 Infereutialism nihilism and, 166 Infinite: See also Absolute absolute vs. relative, 65-66, 75, 81, 106, 126, 128-130, 135, 136-137, 138-139, 207, 300 beings, 131-132 causality and, 132-133 as determination of existence, 131 finite and, 65-·66. 88-90. 95-96, 100-104, 106,163,170 and God, 21,28,65, 75, Ill, 127, 129131, 134, 136 intellect, 53, 75-76,81, 91-92, 104n33. 141-142.190 intensive vs. extensive, 81, Ill, 126-128, 132,139 iteration, 346,349,351 judgment, 70-72 presuppositions and, 125 relative, 128-129 space, 28, 130-132,169,339-340 striving, 352-353 time and, 127 In itself, 41. Seealso Thing in itself analytic commitment to, 43-45 "our conceptual scheme" and, 389

430

Index

In itself (continued) Fichte on, 254, 360 Hegel on, 377n94 Heterogeneity Requirement and, 102-4, 1I5, 1I7, 391 Holistic Monism vs. Monadic Individualism and, 141 Spinoza and, 91, 99, 104 synthetic commitment to, 45-46, 108, 1I3, 1I7, 262, 352n34 Intellectual intuition: collapse into dogmatism and, 364, 374 construction in, 257-258, 339-349, 351 Fichte on moral consciousness as, 300304,313,31~321,333

Fichte on self consciousness as, 225-226, 300-301,305-313,318-321,333,351, 362"-363, 368 Hegel on, 337, 368, 371-373, 377-378 Kant on, 11,208nl1,282,300,371-372 Maimon on, 141-142,342-343 Reinhold on, 225-226, 342 Schellingon, 368, 371-373 Intuition, 124, 171 construction in pnre sensible, 190-191, 210, 342-347 empirical objects and forms of, 93 sensible, 7,41,43-44,124,143,182,190191,208n11,242, 246,284, 302, 310, 342-343,345,351 Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich, 6, 15, 60n90, 109, 110, 161n35, 176, 192,205,219,222, 223,238,241,294, 319n110, 384, 391 1815 Preiace, 15nn21, 22, 162, 164-165, 2I4n27 contemporary analogue to, 198 David Hume on Faith, 93, 154-160, 170n54 Edward Al/will's Col/eeHon, 169 on faith, 214, 282, 380 and German idealist program, 9-1I, 8687,140-141,146-147,174-175,194197 intellectual development of, 162-163 Kantand,87-93,99-108, 128, 154-160, 162,171-174, 198n, 214n27,243, 276n20 on nihilism, 162-174, 175, 190, 19~ 199n,203,214n27, 332,375, 379n97

On the Doctrine oj Spinoza, 87-93, 99-108, 162-163,170-171,319nll0 on reason, 164, 214n27 on Spinozism, 9, 87-93, 99-108, Ill, 170171;380 James, William, 257 Jean Paul, 356 Jesus, 213 Judaism, 390 Kant, Immanuel, 3, 4-5, 6, 7, 8-9, 54, 329, 381. See also Copernican revolution! tum; Deduction of Freedom; Factllm of reason; Faculties; Fourth Paralogism; Metaphysical Deduction; Refutation of Idealism; Second Analogy; Third Antinomy; Transcendental Deduction; Transcendental Ideal; transcendental idealism Agrippan trilemma and, 37-38, 53 on analogical predication, 138-139 Concerning the Ultimate Ground, 34, 136137 Critique ojJudgment, 11,40,263,292-293, 372

Glitique of Practical Reason, 11,81,87, 92n17, 106, 107n37, 112-128, 130, 174,214,277-278n23,278-294,298299,300,302-303,352 Critique oj Pure Reason, 10-11, 14,32,3637,38,41-51,63-64,66,68,70-75, 78-79,86,88,90,91-92,99-106,109110,124-125, 126n66, 130, 150nl0, 151,152-154,157,158,171-174,176, 182,186,277-278n23,294,304,339340,348,351n30, 373 Derivation Monism and, 60-61, 75-78,83 development of, 15-16,25-36,63-66 Dreams oj a Spirit-Seer, 32-33, 136 faculties and, 55-56, 58-59, 82-83 German idealist reception of, 9-11, 146147,194-198,258-259,333-336,348 Groundwork, 263, 292 on Hume, 149-152 Inaugural Dissertation, 32, 33, 34-37, 48, 68-"69, U8, 121,339-340 on intellectual intuition, 302-303, 343344 Jacobi and, 9-Tl, 154-160, 162-174

Index

Lectures on the Philosophkal Doctrine of Religion, 75 Metaphysical Principles of Natural Science,

431

Lachs, John, 356-359

and Agrippan trilemma, 19"-20, 50, 51, 217 on absolute necessity, 23 on complete concepts, 23, 30-31,50,72--" 73,75,348 on problem of metaphysical foundations of physics, 19-25,27-29,37-38,42, 50, 52,87,98,141,146,203 Derivability Monism and, 21-22, 47, 59, 60,76-77,97 on distinctions, 54n76 on God, 27·-28, 50, 1l0, 130, 133 on hypothetical necessity, 23, 86, 108, 113, 126 on ideality of space and time, 24, 33-34, 51n68, 119, 125 on identity of indiscemibles, 74 Maimon on, 84,141-142 Newton and, 27-29, 130, 133, 149 on physics, 26 on pre-established harmony, 23-24, 29, 3031,361-362 and Principle of Sufficient Reason, 73 relational properties and, 21-25 and Spinozism, 84, 91nll, 1l09-112, 130, 141-142 on substance, 20-24, 26, 31, 109, 116, 119, 120, 122,363 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 328, 350n28 and Spinozism, 86, nO-Ill Lewis, David, 227n55, 305-309 Logic, 7Q.--71. See also Dialectical method general vs. transcendental, 56n80, 62, 7071,72-73 Hegelian, 377-378 transcendental, 76 Longuenesse, Beatrice, 16n6, 62n97, 6Bn10B, 69nl11, 70nl12,80n129, 153n17, 178nn69, 72,372

Langton, Rae, 109n41 Lavaterjohann Kaspar, 214n27, 342 Laywine, Alison, 29n26, 32n30, 56n80 Lear, Jonathan, 150n8 Leibniz, Gottfried, 2,8-9, 14,36,53, 56n80, 85n1,94, 116, 131n73, 145,216,253, 386. See also Derivability Monism; Dualistic Demand; Force; Necessity, absolute V5. hypothetical; Monistic Demand

Mairnonides, Moses, 52-53, 139, 180, 195 Maimon, Salomon, 6, 81n134, 384 on causality, 180-181, 285 Categories, 62n96 contemporary analogue to, 19B-199 Critical Investigations, 181n79, 183n83 on distinctions, 52-57 Essay on Transcendental Philosophy, 53, 17Bn70, 179n75, 181-182

64, 186-188, 191 Monadic individualism vs. Holistic Monism and,85-86, 108, 128-130, 140-143, 252-253,339-340 New ElUcidation, 119-120,120-121 nonmctaphysical interpretations of, 16-17, 39-41, 145, 388n6 011 a Recently Prominellt Ione, 294-298, 299,320n11O,330 Dilly Possible Argumellt, 29,358 Opus Postumum, 64, 81, 92-93n15 on physics, 9, 14,26,29-30,47-48,65, Ill, 140, 149, 151, 172, 187-188, 196197,205,258,363,386,389 pre-critical project of, 25-36, 363 on presuppositions, 125-127 Prolegomena, 45-46, 49n66, 52n70, 67n106, 94, 149, 150,157-158, 149, 150, 151, 157, 158, 177-178,209, 359 Reinhold on, 213-219 Remarks onJakob's Examination, 13, 42, 6566,106n36 on German idealism, 15n5, 144, 161 on skepticism, 148-152 and Spinozism, 54n76, 84, 87-108, 110, 112-128 and transcendental arguments, 201, 204211,243-249,256-257 What is Called Orientation, 69,84, 214n27 Kim,jaegwon,23n15 Korner, Stephan, 249, 255 Kripke, Saul, 199 Kuhn, Thomas, 197

432

Index

Maimon, Salomon (continued) on empirical deduction of categories, 182184 on the everyday, 175, 187-188, 194-196, 253,365 on experience, 177-178, 189-190 Fichte and, 84, 111, 249-251,254,255258,321,323-324,342-346,348,365369 Hi!! oj the Guide, 53-54, ]80-·]81 on Kantian dualism, 52-57, 158 on Leibniz, 84,141-142,337 l.ogic, 63n96, 176n65 , 181n79, 189, 348349n26 German idealist program and, 258-259, 381-382 on mathematics, 141-142,182,190-191, 199,253,337,342-346,378-379 on Metaphysical Deduction, 61-62 on natural science, 175, ]80-181, 187188,365,368-369 Philosophical Dictionary, ]81n79, 189-190, 343n12 and Reinhold, 203,213,241 and Schulze, 243 skepticism of, 146-147, 171n57, 176-190, 192,194-196,198-199,205,210,241, 253,321,324,365 on Spinozism, Ill-l12 transcendental arguments and, 240-241 on Transcendental Deduction, 179-180, 184-185 Wanderings, 111-112, 181-182, 213n22, 220,241 Maizeaux, Pierre Des, 133 Martin, Wayne, 221--228 Marxism, 379 Mathematics, 14, 45n59, 135, 139, 151, 184, 199n1l3,204, 251,253,256,352353 . divine cognition and, 141-142, 182,337 intuition and, 190-191, 210, 342-349 in natural science, 187-188, 190-191 Mcfrowell.john, 4, 16n6, 55n78, 60n91 , 200,307n87 McGuire,].E., 27n20, 130-135 Meier, Georg Friedrich, 70, 72 Mendelssohn, Moses, 10, 64,66, 69, 75, 86, 88,99, llO-lll

Metaphysical Deduction, 11,58,61-64,66, 82,176n66,277n23 Agrippan skepticism and, 77··78 Derivation vs. Derivability Monism and, 76-

77 from idea of God, 71, 75-80, 263, 300, 334,339,346-347,349,373 Reinhold on, 61-62 Monadic IndlvldualismSee also Holistic Monism definition of, 86 and dualism, 10